After what many will deem was the demise of Nevermore, crooner Warrel Dane decided to go back his roots with Sanctuary. Releasing the satisfactory The Year The Sun Died last year the band have added Nick Cordle to the ranks. Although technically not the same band, I find it slighty ironic that Jeff Loomis decided to join Arch Enemy following Nick Cordle‘s departure and Cordle decide to join a band that is comprised of Nevermore‘s singer. It seems however that Loomis definitely got the better deal, Arch Enemy may be seeing a resurgance due to the change in line up after Angela Gossow stepped down and Alyssa White-Gluz stepped up but this will not last. Releasing War Eternal last year, the album would be great for any Arch Enemy fan but there was no real evolution.

Adding Jeff Loomis to the ranks however and now you’ve got something a little more interesting. Sure enough you wouldn’t want the guitarist to come in all guns blazing and start calling the shots, but after his years being in a successful band that wrote fantastic songs, not to mention Conquering Dystopia, Loomis‘ side project. There is definitely going to be some interesting interplay between Amott and Loomis creating new dimesions to the band that may well have been hidden for a number of years, I would hope…

Nick Cordle however seems to be more passé news, similar to that of Sanctuary. The band may be a good band that people knew of before Nevermore, but for most, its just a poor man’s Nevermore. Personally I commend Sanctuary for going back to what they started and not trying to sound like Dane‘s previous band. However his voice is pretty recognizable and will surely have accidentally sounded similar to his previous band, attracting more fans. Still a band that hadn’t written an album for that long bounced back pretty well in this new age.

Check out “Frozen” from last year’s The Year The Sun Died and see if you agree.