2007 has been quite a year for Sanctity. The release of Road To Bloodshed back in April, support slot alongside the likes of Trivium and Megadeth and of course an appearance at this years Download Festival and, to finish the year off,  the band have just completed their first headline tour of the UK. Not bad for the American quartet who this time last year were hardly known. John Consterdine caught up with guitarist Zeff Childress to find out more:

So how was your first major headline tour of the UK?

ZC -  It’s been awesome. It’s a big change because usually we’re one of the first bands on a big tour, we don’t have to win over the crowd because everyone knows who you are, there not just waiting [to see the other bands]. It’s been pretty cool though, the shows were a blast.  

Do you think touring with Trivium and Annihilator gave you that exposure over here?

ZC -  That helped us get onto Download and then Download allowed us to get out there more. 

It seems Matt Heafy and Trivium also had a lot to do with you getting signed to Roadrunner Records and get out there a lot more.

ZC - Yeah they helped us out. The story behind that is, we were fairly popular in our home area and certain clubs put local bands on the national act shows, and we got put on one of the big shows with bands like Trivium and Fear Factory. This was before “Ascendancy” [Trivium’s debut album on Roadrunner] came out, but we’d heard of them before on satellite TV on Music Choice, so we got their first CD and liked what they were doing.  When we did that show we said they should come and check us out because we do the same kinda stuff and they did. So we ended up giving them a demo CD and then that’s the one that Matt [Heafy] passed on to Roadrunner. Then a couple months later Roadrunner got in touch and said ‘we kind alike your demo, make us another one’. It took us about a year of talking to Roadrunner before we actually got signed. 

You also worked with Jason Suecof on your album, “Road To Bloodshed”, how was that?

ZC - Ah man, Jason is crazy. He makes you come up with really cool stuff but sometimes he is really hard to work with because he’s all over the place. For me as a guitar player he is just the most awesome guitar player ever, no one knows it but he’s just awesome. He’ll play something and say “like this?” and play something you’ve been trying to get down for a week, right there. He’s so good, he’s super busy, and it’s hard for him to always be focused.

Do you think the album appeals to both new and old thrash fans?

ZC -We just tried to write an album that we wanted to hear that’s pretty much it. We like old thrash stuff and then I like Swedish Death metal stuff and I’d try to put that part into what we’d write.  

What do you think of the rebirth of Thrash? Bands like you guys, Evile and Municipal Waste.

ZC - I think it’s pretty cool, but out of these three I think we’re the least thrashy. Like Evile is awesome, I don’t know, we’re thrashy but I never thought of us as super thrash. Like I said before we just try to write what we want to hear, so if we want a cool riff here then we put one in.

You said you try to incorporate some Swedish Death metal into your music, what else would you say are the main influences for you?

ZC - The biggest bands would be like Metallica and Megadeth, then new stuff would be like Soilwork, In Flames, At The Gates. Basically its hearing songs that make you wanna rock! There are bands who may just have one song but it gives you that feeling when you first hear it, that’s what we try to come up with. All those bands have songs where from the first few notes you know who it is and that’s what we try to achieve.

Out of the two major thrash albums, “Master Of Puppets” and “Reign In Blood”, which would you say is your favourite?

ZC - I would say “Reign In Blood,” because I don’t own the other one [laughs]. For me I was more into the guitar and that’s where I got into Testament a whole lot, because Alex Skolnick kicks the crap out of every other thrash guitarist of that time. He was awesome. I then ended up getting more into people like Yngwie Malmsteen, more shred guitar players. I still like a lot of the thrashy riffs and stuff but I was focusing more on guitar players.  

Finally, what are Sanctity’s plans for 2008?

ZC  -Hopefully two tours in the States in really early spring and another in January which we’re still waiting to hear about. Then we have one more show, after this show, back home in North Carolina, we’re doing a local show with one of our friend’s bands and a couple other metal bands. Then we’re gonna try and write some new songs, we’ve got three that are kinda done, music wise at least, we’re gonna go back to them now and see what we can do to make them better.

Sanctity's current album, Road To Bloodshed, is out now via Roadrunner Records and you can find out more about the band by visiting their website @ www.sanctityweb.com