Wow! That’s the way I like my Metal! Fast, hitting hard, powerful.
Sacred Leather had a very hard mission: to impress playing Old School Heavy Metal. Know what? They did it with flying colors. My guess is album title “Keep the Fire Burning” expresses all the band want to pass to the world with their music that many would say it is outdated, to say the least. In other words, it would mean keep the metal burning.
As many of its peers from the good old 1980s, “Keep the Fire Burning” is a very varied album with fast as hell tracks combined with ballads and slow themes. Technically, Sacred Leather, here and then, experiment some different techniques that would update their music. However, their faith on the music they make is too strong to let it happen. From where I am standing, the right decision. “Malevolent Eyes” is a great sample of what I am saying. Grand finale “Mistress of the Sun,” for instance, tells a very different tale combining more modern techniques qith the good old techniques from the 1980s. The effect it creates issomething a little bit ethereal that addresses to the might Saxon.
“Keep the Fire Burning” commences with the intro “Resurrection” that addresses right to the mighty Judas Priest “Defenders of the Faith” era. Soon comes “Spitfire At Night,” a track that could be in any Speed Metal Hell album of that epoch. It was the song that got me by the guts from day one just because it balances very well melody and aggression exactly as the mighty Judas Priest “Spitfire At Night” does. “Phantom Highway” keeps the fire burning with the same aggression mood, but a little bit more cadenced. Meanwhile, the guitars shine in “Wake Me Up” telling the fan the lesson from the masters was learned good. It is a track that slows it down a little, but keeps the feeling high. As a low point from an album with very few, “Fallen Angel“ is the most common track of the album with that cadenced mood and predicable guitar riffing.
Well, “Keep the Fire Burning” is an album of a band that keeps the faith against all odds. It is not only nostalgia from the good old times, but an album to praise for its quality.
Sacred Leather “Keep the Fire Burning” was released on December 12th via King Volume Records/Wise Blood Records.
Track Listing:
01. Resurrection
02. Spitfire At Night
03. Phantom Highway
04. Wake Me Up
05. Fallen Angel
06. Flatline
07. Tear Out My Heart
08. Malevolent Eyes
09. Keep The Fire Burning
10. Mistress of the Sun
Watch “Fallen Angel” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!