Sanctus Real

Hailing from Toledo, Ohio, the CCM ensemble Sanctus Real has spread faith-centered messages via buoyant and inspiring alt-pop sounds ever since the final years of the 1990s. Following several self-released projects that sharpened their skills, the group established itself on the Sparrow Records roster throughout the 2000s and captured a Dove Award for its breakthrough 2004 album Fight the Tide. In the ensuing period Sanctus Real steadily expanded its audience while achieving repeated crossover success on the pop charts through releases such as 2010’s Pieces of a Real Heart and 2013’s Run. After undergoing a significant membership change, the band entered a fresh chapter with 2018’s Changed and sustained an active schedule of touring and recording well into the 2020s, issuing its tenth album All Along on Framework Records in 2024.

Sanctus Real originated in 1996 when founders Chris Rohman and Matt Hammitt were still attending high school. With Hammitt on lead vocals, the pair recruited drummer Mark Graalman and bassist Steve Goodrum to complete the initial roster. Before securing a contract with the Universal-owned Christian imprint Sparrow Records, the ensemble put out three independent collections of melodic power pop: All This Talk of Aliens in 1998, Message for the Masses in 1999, and Nothing to Lose in 2001.

Collaborating with producer Pete Stewart, Sanctus Real delivered its major-label debut via 2002’s Say It Loud and followed it a year later with the five-song EP supplement SVERIGEEP. The band’s 2004 cover of U2’s “Beautiful Day,” featured on the Sparrow compilation In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa, registered as a Christian hit and earned Sanctus Real its first GMA Dove nomination. Also in 2004 the group’s second Sparrow LP, Fight the Tide, functioned as a breakout release by appearing on Billboard’s Hot Christian Albums and Top Heatseekers charts and securing a Dove Award for Modern Rock Album of the Year. After bassist Dan Gartley replaced Goodrum, Sanctus Real advanced further with 2006’s The Face of Love, which entered the Billboard Top 200 and yielded a pair of Christian hit singles in “I’m Not Alright” and “Don’t Give Up.”

Continued achievements marked the following years as both 2008’s We Need Each Other and 2010’s Pieces of a Real Heart received Grammy nominations, clearing the path for the greatest-hits collection Pieces of Our Past: The Sanctus Real Anthology. The band completed two additional Sparrow LPs, Run in 2013 and The Dream in 2015, before frontman Matt Hammitt elected to depart. His last recorded contribution to the group he had founded was the newly composed track “Longer Than a Lifetime,” included on the second greatest-hits set, 2015’s Best of Sanctus Real.

Deciding to proceed without Hammitt, remaining members Rohman and Graalman brought in vocalist Dustin Lolli as the new frontman. Joined by bassist Tyler Mattiello, Sanctus Real launched its subsequent phase with the independently issued 2016 EP This Is Love. The band then aligned with the Framework label and delivered two albums in rapid succession: 2018’s Changed and 2019’s Unstoppable God. In the years that followed, Sanctus Real concentrated on single releases, beginning with the uplifting “My God Is Still the Same” in 2021 and continuing with “How Many Times” and “Won’t Let Me Go” the next year. Gradually preparing for another full-length cycle, the group incorporated all three of these singles into its tenth studio album All Along upon its 2024 release.