CoC : Morgana Lefay - Sanctified : Review

Morgana Lefay - _Sanctified_
(Black Mark, 1995)
by: Adrian Bromley (4 out of 10)

Sweden's Morgana Lefay's third, and latest offering, _Sanctified_, is a progressive move for the band in regards to their search for that ever flowing essence that can be found within the grooves of power metal. Somewhere in the process of moving away from their second outing, _The Secret Doctrine_, and the recording of _Sanctified_, the band lost an edge (you know, the metallic one?), and most importantly, a direction. Like most albums provided to us by bands of the metal/death metal genre these days, _Sanctified_ is a collection of numbers that will no doubt be varied, but with _Sanctified_, the varied songs don't seem to click in the way they were meant to. The ideas are too scattered. Listen to numbers like "Why?", "Out In The Silence", and "Sorrow Calls" and you see a band trying too hard to search out and find a set style all within an album. There's a lot of that Queensryche/Savatage meets Paradise Lost sound here, and in the end, I'm wondering if this band is really searching for the power metal groove and not a progressive metal sound. Fans of those latter bands mentioned may be interested, but should be wary of this release. I'm wondering if I'll put it on again sometime in the near future (sorry guys - not a big fan of progressive metal).

(article published 1/10/1995)

ALBUMS
2/1/1997	A Bromley	6	Morgana Lefay - Maleficium