From the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains around Asheville, North Carolina comes a short-lived metal collective named SANCTITY. While there is not a lot of verifiable information on the band's origins available, we do know the year is 1998 and SANCTITY are active. Consisting of vocalist/guitarist Loren Allsteadt, guitarist Zeff Childress, drummer Jeremy London, and bassist Chris Rosengrant, the quintet spend all the time they can on the road between The Carolinas and Tennessee.
For two years this incarnation of SANCTITY works hard to build their presence but in 2000, Loren Allsteadt exits the band. Enter vocalist/guitarist Jared MacEachern and with the arrival of the new millennium, a very productive period for the band also gets underway. Before the end of that year, they independently release a 5-song EP, "Betrayal". This is followed by the back-to-back Demo (2003) and "Bedroom Sessions" (2004) but it would be 2005 that provides the break the band needed to move to the next level.
Sometime about halfway through 2005, SANCTITY are playing one of their regular South Carolina shows, one attended by Trivium's Matt Heafy. He was impressed with what he saw and heard, so much so, he requested all of the band's recorded material be sent to him. Once he had it, he then passed it on to Roadrunner's A&R person, Monte Conner. It wasn't long before the label signed the band, but not before SANCTITY self-financed and produced a music video for their song "Zeppo" with director Ramon Boutviseth.
Now a signed act, SANCTITY would spend a good portion of 2006 on the road, beginning with a slot supporting Dragonforce on their U.S. tour. It was at one of these shows that Megadeth's Dave Mustaine caught the band, and like Matt Heafy before him, Mustaine too was quite impressed. Dave personally invited the SANCTITY guys to join "GiganTour", a multi-metal band summer touring jaunt. Later that year, SANCTITY supported labelmates Trivium on their first headlining tour of the U.S., and Children Of Bodom on their U.S. tour at the end of 2006.
The following year, 2007, would be no less active for the band but first, SANCTITY release their debut full length in April, "Road To Bloodshed". It is preceded by the Boutviseth-directed official music video for the song "Beneath The Machine" and following the album, the road beckons once again. They join Gojira and Annihilator as the three support Trivium on their UK tour and several other runs will follow. These include being opening act on the first leg of that year's Black Label Society U.S. tour, which is then followed by a summer U.S. trek with Symphony X.
The year will prove itself to be the most road active calendar cycle for SANCTITY as they head out alongside Arch Enemy and Throwdown supporting Machinehead in the U.S. that fall. Before the year's end, another first for SANCTITY as they score their first headlining run, touring the UK with Evile and Romeo Must Die providing direct support. For all their activity and advancement in 2007, things would quickly deaccelerate in just a matter of months. Just prior to a tour with Sonata Arctica, the band announce the departure of Jared MacEachern and Derek Anderson. Thankfully, some friends of the band, Brian Stephenson, Zach Jordan, and Scott Smith, step up so the planned tour can happen. Unfortunately, these would be the last official acts of SANCTITY.
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