American black metal bands continue to be a scarcity despite the major popularity of the genre abroad. California's Sanctus is one of the few good American bands in the genre, releasing a pretty good album in 2000, with a style rooted in symphonic black metal in the Emperor mold and enough originality to warrant further investigation. They have not been heard from since, possibly an indication of the difficulty of a California band succeeding in a Scandinavian-dominated field.