On December 13th, 2017, Warrel Dane, the legendary lead singer of Sanctuary and Nevermore passed away. At that time, Sanctuary had already confirmed and announced a US tour supporting Iced Earth in February/March 2018 and while shocked by Warrel Dane’s passing, decided to turn it into a tribute to his legacy with exceptionally talented Witherfall-vocalist Joseph Michael. Performing tracks from 1988’s “Refuge Denied”, 1990’s “Into the Mirror Black” and 2014’s “The Year the Sun Died”, Joseph Michael delivered a stunning performance and received very positive feedback from the fans attending the shows. Despite the tragedy that led to this, remaining founding members Lenny Rutledge (guitars) and Dave Budbill (drums) were overwhelmed by the great feedback they received as Rutledge explained to Decibel Magazine in December 2018: “Jon Schaffer suggested that I contact Joseph Michael. He mentioned that Jake Dryer (Iced earth guitarist) was in a band with Joseph called Witherfall and he might be able to pull off a similar vocal style to Warrel. I had never heard of Witherfall at that point. After listening to their debut release I realized that Joseph definitely had potential. Read More: https://www.centurymedia.com/artist.aspx?IdArtist=661