The album doesn’t deal with that shituation over there; it does deal with warfare and its collateral damage. Hell, a lot of metal deals with that stuff, if you want to be in the traditional vein you got to sing about that stuff. ‘Don’t Break The Oath’, ‘Crosses Stained With Blood’, ‘Metal Underground’ and ‘By Vengeance And Hatred We Ride’, you don’t get more metal than this. Even without listening I can guess what all this must sound like. And it turns out that I’m right. High pitched vocals, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, galloping rhythms, all ingredients are present.

 

Although it is not brilliant, there is something about this record. It does start off with a fast and catchy tune 'Charge Into Overkill'. At first it gives me the feeling that it is going to be a kick ass metal record. Unfortunately my premature enthusiasm gets somewhat of a blow during the subsequent tracks. Not that it is all bad, it is just that here and there it is just too obvious how the song progresses. Before the end of the song you can almost sing along to it. There are songs that escape that level of predictability. For example 'Ceremonial Magician of the Left Hand Path' is an interesting slower track with a good guitar riff. The thing I’m not particularly fond of is Gerrit Mutz’s vocals. He sounds cool when he sings in his high pitch vocal, clearly reminding me of Rob Halford. It is probably one of his biggest hero’s. In the ‘normal’ vocal pitch; he tends to sing out of tune. And that is really the Achilles heel of Sacred Steel. So for the fans it may be ok, anyone else I strongly recommend listening before buying.