ALBUM REVIEW: Sabotaje – Santuario

Reigning from Spain are classic Heavy Metal band SABOTAJE, with their new full length!

1. Nunca más kicks straight into the classic Heavy Metal riff work with awesome upbeat drums. From the off it sounds really old school, which works very well with the melodic and catchy lead guitar work. The vocals are really well sung with a powerful and wonderful epic feel to them. There are heavier bits leading into fantastic chorus. A great opening piece.
2. La sombra brings yet more great old school vibes very nicely. There is a more Motorhead vibe to the rhythm section but the vocals are much more melodious, the lead guitar sounds beautiful and creates a wonderful and powerful feel to the song. The guitar solo is really awesome, fairly simplistic but very well played and a pleasant addition to the song for sure. The chorus is really catchy despite the fact I do not speak Spanish at all, they really make their mother tongue work well within the song for anyone even if we do not understand the lyrics, which is a talent I really appreciate.
3. Hermano de sangre has a fantastically upbeat rhythm, it is a really fun song to listen to full of great catchy rhythms and awesome vocals. The drums are absolutely great on this too. This is exactly how doing a classic Metal revisit should sound in my opinion, the band pull it off really well. The guitar solo once again is fairly simple but sounds really awesome and very much like the kind of solo Iron Maiden and similar bands use.
4. Destrucción comes in with gorgeous lead melodies over fist-pumping and nostalgia inducing riffs. This is really a perfect 80s headbanger for those of you who want Metal to sound how it did “back in the day” this is a must listen for you. The lyrics are sung beautifully over the absolutely gorgeous instrumental sections. The harmonies used in the guitar solo sounds absolutely awesome going into more faster territory this time which works really well with the song, it has a really Iron Maiden vibe to it which I love. This song is absolutely killer and by far the best so far to me. The song draws out in a way that to me goes on a bit longer that it needed to but otherwise awesome stuff.
5. Malditos en el poder sounds familiar to me, a bit like “The Sentinel” by Judas Priest, it is slower than other songs creating a really nice break from the faster parts. The variety is nice and the vocals sound really powerful here. The more groovy riffs come back once more and we go through another classic Heavy Metal piece, glorious music done very well. The best guitar solo by far is on this from a technical point although I did enjoy the harmonies a lot on track 4, this one is full of passion, soul and melody. The last part of the song has a kind of glam feel to it which works surprisingly well, the whammy bar drops with just vocals over it sounding cool. A handful more round of the chorus are song to finish things of with a powerful touch.
6. Santuario just feels wonderful, it is joyful and the riffs are catchy as hell. The lead work is beautiful and the drums sound really nice. The production on this album so far has been flawless for the style. This faster paced song sounds really cool with a really perfectly captured old school vibe leading into the slower more epic choruses, plenty of musical diversity in this track makes it a very interesting listen to me. The next section almost has a Punk feel to it that completely changes into a shredding solo and more epic verse. The last parts build up nicely with absolutely amazing songwriting and more catchiness. Great work.
7. Destrozada por mí is the finishing track and manages to pack in yet more epic upbeat classic riffs, great leads, speedy drums and gorgeous singing. The song is full of power and shows no sings of the album ending, the full-on momentum of the album I must say is something really awesome. I cannot put enough emphasis on how great the singers ability is to make a language catchy even to those who do not speak it. The blistering yet still not too flamboyant guitar solo works very nicely too.  The album closes very nicely without too much of a slow grind down, more seeming that the band want to pack as much awesome songwriting into their time as possible.

What you get here is 7 tracks of absolutely killer classic Heavy Metal / NWOBHM worship, with awesome catchy vocals (in Spanish, which sadly I do not speak), upbeat guitar and bass riffs and pounding drums. While it may not be hugely original, what they do is done really well and it is very fun to listen to. -7.5/10