adg211288 The Depths Inside (2014) is the debut full-length album by Russian symphonic/gothic metal act Sanctorium. The group has had a few minor releases before this, including an EP, Gate of Sin (2008), but The Depths Inside represents their first really major release and is primarily made up of songs that have appeared on those earlier releases.

The music on The Depths Inside is primarily gothic metal but with often prominent symphonic elements. The direction of the music can vary a fair bit with some near power metal elements in 1000 Years and aggressive riffs given prominence in Alive, but most of the music is characterised by the oh so typical beauty and the beats vocal style, though Dragonqueen is an exception to the rule where the growled vocals are substituted for guest clean male vocals by Morten's Max Morten. As is usual for this type of release the female voice, provided by Daria Zhukova, is generally given the spotlight. The woman can sing but I also find that her delivery can also get a bit monotonous; some more variation in her singing apart from the operatic notes would have worked wonders for the album. The growls by Sergey Muraviev aren't the most powerful I've heard but serve the music well enough, more so in songs where he's given more singing time than where he just crops up to support Daria Zhukova.

While The Depths Inside is an album that certainly shows off enough ideas in the music to keep a listener interested through it's near one hour duration the album does have some small consistency issues too; the longer of the tracks tend to outstay their welcome while not everything the band does is as instantly attention grabbing as the best of their work. Initiation of Al'Hazred is an easy highlight, featuring some great lead playing and more commanding vocal performances, but it's rare that anything on The Depths Inside gets me going like this one does. The band's mix of influences, which I dare say also include some death metal judging by some of the riffs, is interesting though and as a whole this debut album shows the band to be a bit more than competent. With a bit more experience I'm sure they'll come to realise the full potential suggested on The Depths Inside.