SACRED OATH - Darkness Visible
August 14, 2007, 16 years ago
(Sentinel Steel)
They don’t make albums like this anymore (well, I guess Scared Oath does), but the impetus: Iron Maiden and late ‘70s Rush, have long since moved on. Owing much to the vaunted NWOBHM sound (twin guitar melodies) and Rob Thorne’s rarified helium vocals, a la Geddy Lee pre-Moving Pictures (or Darkness’ Justin Hawkins on ‘Battle Cry’) these resurrected ‘80s metallers (the A Crystal Vision debut was released in ‘87). Kind of a Catch-22, in that back in the day, there were much more acclaimed/accomplished outfits and Sacred Oath were left on the outside. Now, with groups reuniting left and right, there’s renewed interest in older bands (thus they got a deal), but again, bigger names are stealing the limelight! Sentinel Steel does a fine job in niche marketing vintage sounds to a loyal, but fragmented audience here in North America (overseas, especially Germany, is their bread and butter) and while raised on this sound, I find much more exciting noises in contemporary metal, be it Behemoth, Nightwish, Cage, Korpiklaani or any of countless others.
