by Sveinung Naerland

"As thousands of people have mentioned before, yes they've left the dark realms of blackmetal, but they left it to become the most important christian band out there at the moment! Why? Because of this album. To categorize: It is "experimental fusionistic metal". The album is extremely unpredictable, it is full of surprises and it never stops amazing me. Tender acoustic spheres (with exellent clean heavy metal vox) to be killed by raging guitars and grim vocals, then moving into rythmic paradise, with experimental sounds creating a new dimension of beauty. I declear this the most important christian album so far, because: Negative-B is more creative and more advanced than all the currently leading secular bands. This is the album where christians proved our ability to take music to the next level, further than the secular scene. This is an album to look out for!! 7/7 points! "

Music & Mission

"Metalheads are likely to remember the change of style that Amorphis went through between the albums Tales from the thousand lakes and Elegy. They moved from relatively straight doom/death metal to strongly progressive and innovative metal with about half of the vocals clean and half growled. In my opinion, the change between Sanctifica's debut Spirit of Purity and the new album Negative B. By no means can the label "black metal" be applied on this band any more. Even the growling parts are more in the death metal vein. But - as was the case with Amorphis - despite the change of musical direction one can definitely hear from the way the songs are composed that they're still the same band. It is the liberation from the chains of musical style labels that gives the music room to really breath and live. In the same song on can hear extremely brutal death metal bashing, some progressive rock and shades of alternative pop (real alternative, not the mainstream stuff that they call 'alternative') so that the song as a whole still remains intact. The chord progression moves in dimensions that are rarely heard in popular music. I for myself, despite my studies in musical theory, do not have the slightest clue of what sort of chord strctures have been used to create this piece of art. I can only admire the talent. Negative B is a concept album with the same themes being repeated and modified throughout the album in both lyrics and music. Still every song is an integrated whole that stands alone also without the context of the album. Compared to "normal Christian music", the textual world is multilayered, multidimensional, complex and difficult. It has just the right amount of angst and irony for this kind of music, and on the other hand the Highest is the to whom the anguish is in the end taken to. It seems to me that at least a part of the lyrics has to do with troubles in human relations/love affairs, whereas hints of social criticism can also be heard; stream of consciousness in mighty dimensions. Personally I'm still waiting for the lyrics to really start "opening up and talking to me", they seem to have a lot to chew on. And whilst chewing on the lyrics, the music offers continuous pleasure. I have to say that I've never heard music quite like this. Some similarity can be seen to for instance Amorphis: Elegy, newer Gathering, the works of King Crimson and perhaps to some extent Believer and a part of Extol's material. However Sanctifica sounds like no one else but themselves: "and-now-for-something-completely-different metal." Productionwise, there are some really unexpected solutions, such as the SMS beep (which still makes me reach for my cell-phone every single time) and individual synth loops in surprising places. Not to mention secret agent movies... My own subjective opinion is that Negative B is the best album made on this millennium. I'm now a fan."