From the underground and below come power thrashers Sacred Oath with their second live offering, recorded in New York on the final night of their tour supporting their most recent album, 2017’s Twelve Bells. Sitting at 11 songs with just over an hour of music, Thunder Underground is an exciting ride through the career of this USPM entity.

Releasing a single album in 1987 (A Crystal Vision) before their rebirth in 2005, Sacred Oath has been forging strong since with seven full-length records, including the re-recording of their ’87 album, entitled A Crystal Revision. Vocalist Rob Thorne is in fine form belting out tough, aggressive notes, but still capable of getting sky high on the songs from the Crystal Vision days. The one drawback though is the guitars are at the forefront and the vocals are sometimes buried in the mix. Five out of their seven album are represented on this live disc and two out of the first three cuts come from their latest Twelve Bells and they are the perfect rambunctious openers to gain the attention of the crowd with “New Religion” clocking at over 7 minutes and the title track featuring vicious leads. The guitar playing is outstanding very melodic and also capable of belting out vicious notes without being overtly flashy. It’d be hard to not to be headbanging like a maniac through cuts like “Taken”, “The Ferryman’s Lair”, and “Bloodstorm”. The Connecticut metallers slow down the frenetic pace with mid-tempo, atmospheric tracks like “Counting Zeros”, and “Meet Your Maker”. The thunderous and ripping “A Crystal Vision” would have made a proper conclusion, but instead this metal brigade finishes up with the peculiar “Sandrider”. Enjoyable from start to finish and just over an hour long; this should make any Sacred Oath or USPM fan happy.