Sanction’s ‘The Infringement of God’s Plan’ Throws The Metal Community Forward

Sanction is invitingly dark, brutal, and twisted on The Infringement of God’s Plan, out now via Pure Noise Records. The metal band introduces a welcome level of “noise” to a corner of the music community that sometimes can become subservient to clean repetition. The band reaches inside and rattles the core of their listeners — and themselves, it sounds like — touching on those guttural instincts and drives that first drove so many to such demandingly styled music in the first place.

Their songs are jagged and driving, pulling apart listeners’ preconceived notions and throwing them into a blender controlled by a maniac. The finished mixture, while blending spastic jumps and brooding downfalls into its broadly heavy framework, maintains an important unity of purpose. The band doesn’t veer off the edge of heavy music here and incorporate soft pop parts just for the hell of it, as some bands might be inclined to. That method works for some heavy artists, and it doesn’t work for others — but it’s just not what Sanction is reaching for. Their mixture isn’t a dilution; it’s a brutal intensification.

Their sound takes the metal, metalcore, hardcore, or whatever you want to call it that remains so popular in certain circles and brings it back down to earth. Although the song construction is not the same, the general idea is reminiscent of Converge’s Jane Doe. That record hit people because it was musically personal — there was little to no apparent filter in any respect. On the record, the members of Converge rip out their insides and pour themselves out — metaphorically speaking — and in a sense, there’s the feeling of a similar process at play with Sanction and The Infringement of God’s Plan.

The band touches on what makes this music so special in the first place. The point of the broad community isn’t focusing on one particular emotion, be that sadness, anger, or whatever, and it’s not drumming up something fake either. The aim that holds all of this together is opening the dam and standing there as the rush of emotions and feelings passes over. There’s a sense in metal at times that we’re aiming to face whatever there is to face head-on — even if that constitutes The Infringement of God’s Plan.

5/5 Stars

Listen below via Spotify.