Guitarist Chris Rohman and vocalist Matt Hammitt, the founding members of Christian rock band Sanctus Real, met in high school in Toledo, Ohio and formed the band whilst still students there. They quickly recruited drummer Mark Graalman, and alongside bassist Steve Goodrum, the four musicians made up the band for the first ten years of its existence until Goodrum left in 2006. The band released their first three albums independently beginning with 'All This Talk of Aliens' in 1998, 'Message for the Masses' in 1999 and 'Nothing to Lose' in 2001.
In 2002 the band signed with Sparrow Records, a Christian music subsidiary of Universal, and released their album 'Say It Loud' in the same year, followed by an EP of five extra songs entitled 'SVERIGEEP' in 2003. The band became more widely known in 2004 with their cover of U2's 'Beautiful Day' which became a Christian music hit and earned them their first of seven nominations for a GMA Dove Award. It reached number one on R&R magazine's Christian Rock Chart in 2004. They had additional chart success with their LP 'Fight the Tide' in 2004, which earned them a GMA Dove Award for Modern Rock Album of the Year in 2005 and featured on both the Billboard Hot Christian Albums Chart and the Heatseekers Chart. Their album 'The Face of Love' (2006) reached the Billboard Top 200 and launched popular singles 'I'm Not Alright' and 'Don't Give Up' in the same year. Steve Goodrum left the band following the release of these singles and was replaced with bassist Dan Gartley.
Sanctus Real's next two album releases both earned the band Grammy Award nominations: 'We Need Each Other' (2008) and 'Pieces of a Real Heart' (2010). The band released its first greatest hits album, 'Pieces of Our Past: The Sanctus Real Anthology', in 2010, followed by LPs 'Run' in 2013 and 'Dream' in 2015. Lead vocalist Matt Hammitt decided to leave the band and his final single 'Longer Than a Lifetime' was released in 2015. This became the only new track on their second greatest hits album, 'Best of Sanctus Real', in 2015.
Dustin Lolli joined the band in 2016 as the new lead singer along with new bassist Tyler Mattiello. The first release of the new lineup was EP 'This Is Love' in 2016. The band then moved to the Framework record label and released the albums 'Changed' in 2018 and 'Unstoppable God' in 2019.