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SACRED STEEL BAND PAGE
 SACRED STEEL
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CURRENT NAME
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Sacred Steel | |
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FORMER NAMES
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- | |
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ORIGIN
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Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany | |
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STATUS
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Active | |
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FORMED IN
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1996 | |
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LABEL
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Massacre Records | |
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GENRE
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Heavy metal | |
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STYLE
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- | |
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LYRICAL THEME
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- | |
| BAND ADDED | 2005-12-20, 00:00 | |
| LAST UPDATE | 2011-07-20, 15:16 | |
Biography | Band members | Discography | Shows | Forum
| Band biography |
After finding suitable people to fill up the ranks of their new musical home SACRED STEEL – drummer Mathias Straub, rhythm guitarist Oliver Großhans and bassist Jens Sonnenberg (who replaced the unreliable short-time member Patrick Schmidt) – they quickly began to make their vision of a True Metal band become reality. A rehearsal tape and a couple of live shows (including support slots with some well-known heroes such as Blitzkrieg) eventually resulted in a record deal offer by Metal Blade Records, which they gladly signed in April 1997 – as the first ever German band to do so ! A few months later, the band recorded their debut album “Reborn In Steel”, which saw release in late October 1997 and probably was the most Agent Steel record seeing release since “Unstoppable Force” had been unleashed upon the banging Hordes in 1987. On September 13th 1997, in between the recordings and the release of “Reborn”, SACRED STEEL made their first major live appearance at the Bang Your Head !!! festival in Tübingen, showcasing their idea of the True Power of Metal to a larger audience for the first time, and having the honor to perform the Tension classic ‘Downfall Of Evil’ together with no one less than the semi-legendary Tom Gattis of ex-Deuce/ex-Tension/Wardog fame himself.
1998 saw SACRED STEEL playing a well-received show at the Wacken Open Air, one of Europe’s biggest Metal festivals, where they played the second open air stage, called ‘True Metal Stage’. The set list already included ‘Wargods Of Metal’ and ‘Heavy Metal To The End’ off the new album “Wargods Of Metal”, which had already been recorded at that time but was not released earlier than the 9th of November of that year. This second onslaught of the True Force of Iron Glory proved to be a big step for the band, having a truly Killer production (which was done by none less than the legendary Bill Metoyer, who before worked with Metal legends such as Slayer, Helstar and Omen, but also with SACRED STEEL Brothers Wardog and Destiny’s End) as well as mighty songs like the aggressive, bloodthirsty opening title track, a bow to the great Omen with a brilliant rendition of the old classic ‘Battle Cry’ (originally planned to be only the bonus track for the vinyl version) and the closing hymn ‘Heavy Metal To The End’.
To everyone’s huge surprise, SACRED STEEL were pre-nominated for the ‘Best Heavy Metal Performance’ Grammy (!!), but as could be expected, they didn’t stand too much of a chance against bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest (this time, that is).
SACRED STEEL’s 1999 started with a compilation appearance – “Unbroken Metal”, a CD released by a local Metal TV show in Hamburg, included a demo version of the “Wargods” track ‘Crusaders Of The Metal Blade’. Singer Gerrit also gained some recording credits by joining Goddess Of Desire for their version of Mercyful Fate’s ‘Nuns Have No Fun’. February and March saw the band on their first big out-of-area tour, supporting the European leg of Nevermore’s “Dreaming Neon Black” tour, together with the Swedish (Morgana) Lefay and Nocturnal Rites.
In August of the same year, the band surprisingly made another (quite triumphant) Wacken appearance, because the Marduk show was cancelled and SACRED STEEL, who had only come as ordinary festival attendants, were asked to fill in for the Black Metallers. Right after the festival, a one week headlining tour called “Crusaders Of The Metal Blade” with Destiny’s End and Wardog started, leading them through Germany and to Holland and Belgium. Not much later, SACRED STEEL were featured on another compilation when Nuclear Blast released their “Tribute To Accept”, which contained a SACRED STEEL version of ‘Fight It Back’.
The following months were used for song writing, and in early January 2000, SACRED STEEL entered the ‘House of Music’ studios in Winterbach to record their self-produced third album “Bloodlust”, engineered and mixed by Achim Köhler. “Bloodlust” is a concept album featuring a fantasy storyline developed by singer Gerrit and shows a slightly less raw and more melodic approach, while of course generally retaining all of SACRED STEEL’s True Metal trademarks. The album was released on May 2nd 2000, late one week due to manufacturing problems beyond the band or label’s control, and was supported by single shows and festival appearances (such as the Summer Breeze Festival in southern Germany on August 24th 2000), while a regular tour did not take place until early 2001, when SACRED STEEL supported Primal Fear’s “Nuclear Fire” European tour together with Finnish Melodic Death shooting stars Children Of Bodom in February and March.
Meanwhile, SACRED STEEL have already been getting busy again with writings song for their upcoming fourth album “Slaughter Prophecy”, which will be the first SACRED STEEL release to profit from their newly signed record deal with Germany’s Massacre Records, after the Metal Blade contract had expired with “Bloodlust”. The album recordings for “Slaughter Prophecy” are going to take place in late 2001 in the House Of Music studios, the album’s release is scheduled for February 4th 2002.
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6.5 / 10 Read our review here | ||
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