Sacred Steel - Slaughter Prophecy

*=Staff's pick	The Immortals Curse* Slaughter Prophecy Sacred Bloody Steel The Rites Of Sacrifice Raise The Metal Fist Pagan Heart* Faces Of The Antichrist Lay Me To My Grave Crush The Holy, Save The Damned Let The Witches Burn Invocation Of The Nameless Ones

Genre	Heavy Metal	Gerrit P. Mutz	Vocals
Tracks	11	Jörg M. Knittel	Guitar
Runningtime	46 Min.	Oliver Grosshans	Guitar
Label	Massacre Records	Jens Sonnenberg	Bass
Release	10 May 2002	Mathias Straub	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Steel Prophet, Omen

Sacred Steel from Germany plays traditional, basic and kind of primal heavy metal of the intense kind, with quite a bit of thrash elements thrown into it. This is their 4th album that was released in 2002, and it's my first encounter with the band so far. We are being served strong, fat and every now and then delicious riffs which appeal to me. There is a good tempo throughout the album, without letting the bass drums running amok just for the sake of it. The guitar work is really good, and one classic and catchy riff after the other are handed out.

Unfortunatly the vocals are weak, not always steady on the notes and give immediate associations to an italian or american band of average/middle class. It was perhaps charming at the time of the birth of the early thrash scene with bands who had vocalists that sang rather then well, and it somewhat fits certain bands like Wizard and Paragon, but here it constantly shifts between annoying and just simply bearable. The album is nevertheless enjoyable, due to the mentioned instrumental aspect of it.

If you don't mind this kind of primitive vocals, or perhaps even if you prefer them - then check Sacred Steel out. What the album lack apart from the above is in my eyes some more distinct bridges and refrains. It tend to sometimes be a bit hard to notice when one of them are turning into the other, and some sharper edges and a bit more distinct melodies would do this music just good. There are dark, semi-growling vocals appearing every now and then, and in the opening song they even have the leading role, and that sounds really good. It is unknown to me if it's the original singer that does them too, but I believe it's someone else. That sound really, really good, and more of that is to wish for in the future if you ask me.

Sacred Steel are at the moment current with a new album called Iron Blessings, and I for sure am going to check it out because if these details I have mentioned have improved, we might be looking at a really good album.

See also review of: Hammer Of Destruction

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	5	7

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tommy