Sanctuary formed in Seattle in 1985. They released a demo in 1986, which was well received, and that lead them to sign with Epic Records in 1987. They released their debut album, Refuge Denied, in the same year. It was produced by Dave Mustaine, frontman of popular thrash metal band, Megadeth. A tour alongside Megadeth and the German band Warlock followed.

After the tour, they entered the studio to record their second and final studio album, Into The Mirror Black, in 1990. A video clip for the song Future Tense was made and it received some air play on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. During the tour (with the bands Forbidden and Death Angel), the guitarist Sean Blosl left the band and was replaced by Jeff Loomis.

Shortly after, pressure from Epic Records to fit in with the flourishing Seattle grunge scene caused disagreements between band members (regarding the band's musical direction). So it followed that in 1991, Sanctuary officially disbanded.

Epic Records was to release a full length live recording from this final tour but only a limited number of copies of a promotional live EP ever saw the light of day. It was named Into the Mirror Live.

Warrel Dane, Jim Shephard and Jeff Loomis went on to create Nevermore a few years later. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.