Warrel Dane, vocalist of Sanctuary, passed away in 2017
In an interview with Metal Wani, Lenny Rutledge, guitarist for Sanctuary, spoke about the tour he's been doing with Joseph Michael of Witherfall on vocals, following the death of vocalist Warrel Dane in December 2017. Read it here .
Regarding touring as a tribute to Warrel Dane: “It’s been a bittersweet thing, but at the same time, I think we all had a lot of fun. People have been really positive. They’re responding well to Joseph, and I think a lot of people were excited to see that we were still going to do the tour. I talked to a lot of fans who were like, ‘Well, we bought the tickets because we wanted to see you guys,’ and some of them were a little disappointed when they heard the news about Warrel, and maybe we weren’t going to do the tour, but it seems like everyone we talked to was really excited. […]
We wanted to find someone we could work with and do it respectfully, and not do something like, ‘Hey, we’re doing a massive search for the right singer.’ I didn’t think that would be appropriate. We were very careful. Still, there’s a part of me that… I feel like we did the right thing, but you really don’t know. You really don’t know at first, and Joseph and I talked about it on the phone too. We agreed that we wouldn’t go too far.” unless we could do it respectfully” […]
“We have a lot of music. Joseph and I are talking about it, and he has some of the songs we were working on, and we’ll see where we go from here. This isn’t a secret, but playing live is different from the studio. We’re having a lot of fun, I can tell you that. He and I are getting along well. We have fun every night, and I think there’s been a new – and I hate to say this, because I absolutely adored Warrel, more than anyone will ever know. He was my musical partner for a long time, and I never thought about writing with anyone else, but now, in this situation, Joseph has given the band a new lease on life, we’ve been able to play some songs that we don’t normally play with Warrel. Warrel had some things going on with his band, his voice, and his health. Although he was still an incredible vocalist, songwriter, and all that, there were some things we avoided doing, and now that Joseph is in the band, he has a different range, so we’re trying some other things. It’s kind of an inspiration for the band, so it’s been really cool for us. We’re moving forward.”.
The band was formed in 1985 and signed with Epic Records with the help of Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine, releasing two albums: Refuge Denied in 1988 and Into The Mirror Black in 1989. Sanctuary disbanded in 1992 when Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard formed the successful Nevermore with Jeff Loomis, currently in Arch Enemy. The band reunited almost 25 years later, in 2010, and played shows at various festivals before returning to the studio to record their comeback album, The Year The Sun Died , in 2014 for Century Media Records.
