Negative B is the second and last album by the Swedish band Sanctifica

Sanctifica

Sanctifica was a Swedish unblack metal band, formed in 1996, disbanded in 2003. After releasing their EP, In the Bleak Midwinter, in 1997, they were considered to be one of the leading modern Christian black metal bands in the early 2000s with their album Spirit of Purity...

, released on Rivel Records in 2002. This album saw the band abandoning their previous black metal

Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....

 style for a more alternative, electronic, avantgarde, experimental

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

, progressive death metal sound.
The album received mixed reviews, others finding the album too bizarre, unfocused and unbalanced, while others praised it for its unique style. Many fans of Sanctifica's old style were disappointed on the drastic style change, but Negative B brought the band a new group of fans from the progressive metal crowd.

Recording

Presumably tired of their "Emperor clone" label, by 2001 the band left black metal and evolved to a more experimental, progressive death metal act. Later that year, Sanctifica entered a studio to record Negative B. Produced by the guitar virtuoso Carl Johan Grimmark

Carl Johan Grimmark

Carl Johan Grimmark is a Christian guitarist born in Gothenburg, Sweden October 14, 1977. He has appeared with several influential Christian metal bands including Narnia, Saviour Machine, and Rob Rock. He recently joined the band Beautiful Sin in 2006. He also has been a special guest guitarist on...

, Negative B turned out to be a concept album about social issues. The band recorded the album in 4 months and released it in March 2002. David Seiving of Crimson Moonlight

Crimson Moonlight

Crimson Moonlight is a Swedish Christian black metal band which was formed in the summer of 1997 with the mere intention of recording a primitive old school black metal demo and playing one show before breaking up. However, the breakup never happened, and they have since recorded two EPs and two...

 sung guest vocals on "Stardust Inc." The album contains a pregap

Pregap

The pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents . The pregap is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence...

 of 9min 20sec of hidden content, presumably the band members talking.

The album is characterized by technical riffing, vocals shared between mostly clean vocals and some death growls, and experimenting with studio effects, including clapping hands, cellphone ringtones, cable noises etc. The album also includes a variety of extraordinary instruments to metal such as flute and mandolin. The flute is used such many times on the album that some previous fans began calling the band "Sanctiflutica." The song "Stardust Inc.", considered by some critics as the best song on the album, contains keyboards typical for the horror punk

Horror punk

Horror punk is a music genre that mixes Gothic and punk rock sounds with morbid imagery and lyrics, which are often influenced by horror films...

 genre. As opposed to the previous brutal style, several songs lean more towards ballad feel rather than dark metal. Lyrically, the album takes stances on social issues and society, such as European Union.

Reception

Negative B gained mixed reviews for its bizarre entity: Several critics considered it to be unique, at parts even "brilliant," but some reviewers called the style unbalanced and unfocused, claiming that the songs on the second half of the album, especially "Juxtapose" trilogy, lacked a proper structure or that the band had clearly great ideas but could not ration them convincingly. However, it was praised for its technically proficient musicianship. The album contains such a wide variety of musical elements that some critics thought the style is impossible to label or to compare to other musical ensembles. Hubertus Liljegren was cited by a critic as a talented guitarist but considered a decent vocalist at best, compared to the more acclaimed performance of David Seiving.

Tour

Despite gaining mixed reviews, Sanctifica received fairly good promotion for the album, opening them the opportunity to tour Scandinavia to support the album's sales. During the concerts following the albums release, Björn Isacsson played all guitar parts for a while, letting Hubertus perform vocals. In May, David Seiving of Crimson Moonlight joined as a vocalist, and Hubertus concentrated on playing guitar. Sanctifica played a number of concerts at different festivals in Scandinavia during the summer 2002. Some concerts included a performance by the dancer Lovisa Lindström.

In the beginning of October, Sanctifica played a tour in Finland, performing at rock clubs of Turku

Turku

Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

, Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

 and Jyväskylä

Jyväskylä

Jyväskylä is the capital of Central Finland and the largest city on the Finnish Lakeland, north-east of Tampere and north of Helsinki, on northern coast of lake Päijänne. The city has been continuously one of the most rapidly growing cities in Finland since World War II. The city is surrounded...

. Afterwards, Hubertus left the band, and Sactifica split up in 2003.

Track listing

1. "Labels" - 5:58
2. "Stardust Inc." - 7:28
3. "Epitaph" - 4:40
4. "Lavender" - 7:49
5. "Red Alert" - 7:53
6. "Nerve" - 6:32
7. "Juxtapose 1: As a Reminder" - 3:34
8. "Juxtapose 2: Confront" - 6:09
9. "Juxtapose 3: Summer Sits Here Raining" - 6:09