Inner Sanctum working on their full length album

Aug 19 • Indian News, Interviews, News, Releases • 5679 Views • No Comments on Inner Sanctum working on their full length album

Bangalore based band, Inner Sanctum have been in the studio for a long time working on their highly anticipated new full length album, the follow up to their EP Provenance, which came out in 2009. It has been a long time coming and fans have grown impatient with all the waiting. We speak to Inner Sanctum to figure out exactly how much longer they intend to make us wait.

Inner Sanctum

“We haven’t yet decided a release date, but we’re looking at some time at the end of the year or probably early next year.”That still seems like a long wait.While we wait, let’s get some more information about the new album from the guys themselves.“All I can say is that it’s going to have 8 jizztastic tracks and you’re going to need a shit ton of tissue while you’re listening to the album. If you don’t believe me, you should take a black light into the studio to see the amount of love that went into this album. “

Inner Sanctum have always made for a compelling live band and some of you must have already heard many of the new songs at Sanctum gigs across the country.“We’ve been playing a lot of the songs on the album live, so I’m sure there are quite a few people who are waiting to hear it on record, ourselves included. There are a couple of songs on the album that were written this year that we’ve never played live, so that’s something to look out for as well.”

Certainly something for fans to look forward to. Another thing that fans can look forward to and always rely on from Inner Sanctum, is brilliant artwork. From T-shirts to album covers to gig posters, vocalist Gaurav Basu aka Acid Toad is not just an electric frontman but also has a day job as a graphic designer. His trippy and sprawling artwork, populated by creatures from the abyss, has caught the eye of many around the globe. He has worked not only for IS but has also been commissioned to work for various international artists and for T-shirt brands. Having recently designed an album cover for French djentstep artist The Algorithm and T-shirts for Swedish band Nale, Basu is on a high right now. Does that mean we are going to see some fireworks (tentacles, more likely) on the album cover?“Oh yeah! Bas has been working hard on the art. Right now we’re not revealing much, so you will have to wait and see what comes out of the Toad. I’m pretty sure the dude’s been sucking on some toxic toads for inspiration, so the art is going to be crazy!”

Inner Sanctum Live

Brilliant artwork coupled with some fine music. and who…who would Inner Sanctum trust to helm the music? None other than German producer Lasse Lammert who also produced, mixed and mastered their Provenance EP.
“It was great sitting in the studio together with Lasse, everything went pretty smooth apart from a few hitches here and there. Overall it was quite an intense experience.”

Lasse is a veteran producer, having worked with international bands like Alestorm, Svartsot, Halcyon Way, Synarchy among many many others. The experience of working with him must have been
“ Brilliant! Honestly the guy is genius. He knows exactly what to do right from the get go, to make sure he has everything he needs to put out a kick ass album. Watching him work in the studio was a pleasure, and working with him in the same room, as opposed to over the internet, was the best decision we’ve made. He’s a great dude to hang out with as well, and never passes up an opportunity to get shit faced, so we all got along very well.”

Since Lasse also produced the last EP, we naturally would asked how different this release would be from that one.“We should obviously insert the boring “heavier, faster, more aggressive, louder” statement here.”
That, surely, is what the fans want and love. Having said that, what about the band and its evolution?
“I think we’ve matured in the last 5 years, we’ve been together for a while now and we know exactly what each one needs to bring to the table to push the band to the next level. The music has progressed over the years as well. It’s still Sanctum, but you can make out that we’ve grown as musicians.”

Inner Sanctum’s live performances, if you have ever been to one, are absolutely destructive, with circle pits, wall of deaths and jumping, moshing, headbanging galore. Fans obviously are eager to see the band, fresh out of the studio, bring the madness to stages in their city. And IS are not about to disappoint. An album release and promotion tour that goes through some of the smaller metal-friendly cities like Imphal, Shillong, Pune, Kochi etc is on the cards.
“Well yes, we’re definitely going to try and hit as many cities as we can to promote the album, but knowing the Indian touring circuit, it’s going to be quite a task. So if you’re a promoter reading this and you’d like to have Sanctum tear down a stage in your city, get in touch with us! We’re planning on heading back to Europe in 2015 as well, if all goes as planned.”

Playing Europe and smaller cities is a great idea. But what about the hardcore fans in cities like Bangalore, Bombay and Delhi?
“Yes obviously, Bangalore is our home, so it’s definitely on the cards. We haven’t played outside Bangalore for a long time, so we’re definitely looking forward to hitting Bombay and Delhi as well. Basically we’re going to try and play as many cities as we can.”

Inner Sanctum Live at Counter Culture (Photo Courtesy: Munz Photography)

The tracking was completed in June 2014 and Lasse will start work on the mix in September.While we wait, I want to know more about the kind of comfort level they share with Lasse and what he brings to Inner Sanctum as a producer that makes them want to work only with him and take the effort to fly him down to Bangalore.“Apart from his love for the punani and his bad taste in Indian women, the guy really knows what we want as a band. He totally gets us, and that’s the most important part. He could be the best engineer in the world, but if he didn’t really understand us and what we wanted, and be willing to work together with us to get that, it’d be pointless really.Lasse has years of studio experience, and this definitely makes working with him so much easier. Like I said before, Lasse knows exactly what needs to be done right from the start. We worked with him on Provenance and it just clicked right from the start.When we decided to track the album, we didn’t think twice about working with him again, so we decided to try and bring him to Bangalore so that he could track us, and this was definitely a good decision. You just have to wait for the album, to see what we’re talking about.”

Inner Sanctum will announce the album title and the artwork later in the year , so keep a check on Sanctum’s facebook page.