2009-11-14
For a starters, I must say that I'm really happy that bands are still playing old-school music. Financially, it's not worth it (unless your Iron Maiden), and a lot of artists feel that they have outgrown it.
Sacred Oath is a classic example of the late 80's American power metal genre. The band formed in 1985, and released their first album, "A Crystal Vision" in 1988.By that time they had already disbanded due to creative disagreements and frustration with their failing record company. It doesn’t come as surprise to me. At those days, there were bands popping out all over the place, releasing to one album, before fading away, yet staying a myth for playing in that genre.
In 2001, the record company "Sentinel Steel Records", made a brave, yet common move for the time. The company decided to release the album again. The band was convinced that was time to relight the fire, so they went to the studio, and recorded the album again. The album was out in 2005 and it was called "A Crystal Revision". Two years later they released "
Darkness Visible".
The band got back on the touring track, and released "Till Death Do Us Part".
This album contains songs from both of their albums.
The sound quality is pretty good for a live album, and you can hear that these guys are talented musicians. The material has a de ja vu affect for me, as it sounds very familiar, but I'm not sure if I ever heard it before. I really enjoyed listening to the album.
In the end, when it comes to these kind of bands, I usually divide them in to two categories.
If was 14 now, and it was the first time I had heard them, I would probably cherish them, and consider them classic. Listening to them now, the band doesn't sounds very different from any other band of the time. The music and atmosphere is great, but it didn't thrill me.
Dolev Zaharony
