https://savageoath.bandcamp.com/album/savage-oath-ep

From their bandcamp-

"SAVAGE OATH are a power quintet playing Epic Metal, hailing from the USA. Debut LP out in 2023!
Savage Oath is

Brendan Radigan - Vocals
Phil Ross -Bass
Leeland Campana -guitar
Carlos Llanas -guitar
Ryan Mower- Drums"

Really digging this first demo! Very promising stuff with a great bunch of talented, experienced musicians making just the kind of music I dig!

I'm not familiar with the other bands listed (might be worth checking them out), but no one on that list has anything (relevant) to do with Manilla Road as far as I'm aware. And a quick search on MA tells me that they have one (ex-)member from each of the other bands mentioned.

This could still be nice contemporary USPM, but promoting that band as a super group might be a tad misleading.

Phil was in Manilla Road when Mark died.... certainly worth a mention, no? And all of those other bands are pretty huge if you follow heavy metal at all...

Oh okay, he was the bassist on 'To Kill a King', yeah... and on their last couple of years of tour. Sure, this goes on his resume. But it's fairly anecdotal. It's not like they had Randy Foxe on drums or Bryan Patrick on vocals. They have one of many extras who came and went on bass and drums in MR's 21st century run, and not one of the few who left a mark, or played on one or more good album(s).

I don't really follow recent bands at all, in case that wasn't clear from my previous post. I'd like to do that a bit more, but I rarely have the motivation. It doesn't help that when I do check out recent big names, it's rarely stuff that engages me much.

Case in point: I've listened to the couple of songs on Savage Oath's bandcamp page, and I got bored about halfway through each song. This feels like a mishmash of kinda deliberate influences and musical elements to me rather than something with personality and flair. The singer is very good but his style screams EuroPM to my ears, whereas much of the music wants to follow the USPM tradition instead (I'd even say more of the "blue collar" variety if that still means anything). And at the same time, they have multiple moments per song with more than a passing nod to much more delicate and sophisticated styles like 90s Virgin Steele, late 80s Helstar or even straight up modern post-Keepers EuroPM bands. At least on first listen, this sounds like it lacks direction, cohesion and an identity to my ears. The musicianship level is high, the production is okay albeit too digital-sounding to my taste, but the songwriting doesn't seem to be noteworthy. And great songwriting is by far what I'm looking for the most in any music.

It might be the case that it's stuff that needs multiple listens to click. And/or it might be referencing newer trends from some of those recent bands that became huge to those following current new releases but that I have yet to listen to. I'll give the other bands a try, this made me a bit curious. Hopefully I'll find something new to love like Crescent Shield or A Tortured Soul rather than more flat worship stuff like Cauldron Born.

Thanks for the introduction, anyway.

We are hearing very different things with this band...

I kinda like this more than some of the guys' actual main bands. I still don't really hear anything that can beat classic Twisted Tower Dire, Omen or MR though, personally - just not the level of songwriting or catchiness I like I guess. And how many more bands do we need with the same aesthetics, lyrics, moods? Not everything's got to be super unique or different, but all of these are blending together. Makes me value Sonja and Sanhedrin more for being different.

Anyone hear any updates with Visigoth?

I really liked the last album from 50 years ago.

Those bands are all huge in the underground but precisely none of the members are the draw of those bands. The only guy with anything resembling a "name" really is Brendan Radigan and even then I mostly know him as the least interesting part of Magic Circle and the weaker replacement for Phil Swanson in Sumerlands. Leeland Campana is a great guitarist in a great band but lets be real, the star of Visigoth has always been and will always be Jake Rogers. Carlos Llanas played on the great Eternal Champion debut and has since been doing scattered projects that I'm sure are cool but are totally faceless and look ridiculous in the same sentence as Eternal Champion. Phil Ross played with Manilla Road for the last two years of their existence and appeared on one of their most forgettable records. And I've already forgotten the drummer's name after clicking off the other tab because this is literally his first project.

Like, don't get me wrong, these guys all performed in great bands and it's by no means a lie to drop all of those names when introducing them, but you wouldn't have people side-eyeing it if it was like Jake Rogers, Arthur Rizk, etc. They're all role players in those bands, the Andrew Shaw to somebody else's Patrick Kane and no amount of Six Degrees of Mark Shelton can hide that.

Demo sounds cool though, just backing up LM that yeah, those names in the title are doing a lot of heavy lifting.

I found out about this release from the Unisound website since Dan Swano apparently mixed it. I'm a fan of the other bands the members are in and this demo is solid. I'd certainly be interested in hearing more from them in the future.

The demo sounds great, this is definitely one to watch!

A forum like this. on a site like this. mentioning the band members past and present bands seems pretty consistent with what this place is all about.

Ultimately the lineup doesn't really matter that much, although I think if some of the members have played in other bands you actually enjoy it at least indicates they might know what they're doing. Supergroups are hit or miss but I think this band will wind up on the right side of that ledger.

This sick new band drops out of nowhere and you fucking nerds want to argue and nitpick about acknowledging the lineup’s history? Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth, just leave the hall if you have a problem with musicians starting, joining and leaving bands.

I was looking for a tape at the fest this weekend, saw someone in a Savage Oath shirt, and it turned out to be Phil (good advertising tbh) and he sold me the last one. He was a super nice guy who shot the shit with me for a while, and promised that the debut record is not far behind. I imagine that that point, they’ll probably play the next year as well.

I’m LOVING the vocal mix, and that Radigan sounds significantly more raw and Magic Circle-ish than he did on Dreamkiller. Same goes for his Pagan Altar performance, just fucking perfect.

Keep keeping it real Flex fuckin a

I will have to check it out. Looks like the tapes are sold out on bandcamp though.

As far as grandpa metal goes I thought it was pretty good. Will have to check out any future releases.

Lol no.

Just listened to the demo and I REALLY dig it, can't wait for the full length.

I'm happy for you if you instantly loved this demo to the point that you consider this nth NWOTHM product "a sick new band". You must be constantly overwhelmed by all the new music you fall in love with all the time, which must be nice. Plus you appear to be moving in the same circles or perhaps scene as a lot of these recent US bands, and you got to meet one of the members of this one IRL, which visibly made you an even bigger fan.

This applies to HighwayCorsair as well, probably tenfold, judging by all the links in his signature. To be honest I initially even suspected this thread was a promotional endeavor rather than just a fellow forum goer informing us about a band they like. That's part of what made me tick at the overblown "with members of Crimson Glory, Savatage, Agent Steel, Manilla Road, Iron Maiden etc." style of title when a little fact-checking reveals it's more along the lines of "with guys who work or used to work for various bands, some of them famous". That gave me a vibe similar to stickers on albums or indeed PR statements where they emphasize any connection they can, no matter how slim or artistically irrelevant, to any recognizable name to maximize publicity. It's just not how I would expect a fan to genuinely spread the word about a new band they genuinely love for its merits. At least it's not how I would do it.

Please bear in mind that not everyone on this forum or in the metal world in general is in or around your specific scene, or has connections with labels and band members from that scene and personal investment in that scene. Most of us don't even live in your country, and unless it's artistically relevant, the fact that this or that member of a new band used to play for another band is trivial info at best. What we want to know is if the product you're promoting is good in and of itself or not. And IF we like it, then we're more likely to be interested in digging in the band's scene connections and history a bit (some of us, at least, probably a minority in the larger metalhead audience honestly). Telling me all this info before I've even listened to one note tends to make me more cautious than excited.

In this case, I gave this band a fair listen and I'm not impressed at all. As I mentioned, maybe it's a style that won't instantly grab me and I'd need multiple listens for it to grow on me (it took me over a decade for Virgin Steele's 90s run to finally click, admittedly). Or maybe it's a style that's just not for me. Or maybe (just maybe) it's nothing to write home about and since I don't have any external reasons to make myself like it and praise it, it doesn't engage me much. I can't know for sure which it is (for me) at this point.

I do know that people giving one listen to this stuff and immediately reacting as if a new classic was born must have either very basic taste (and again, that's awesome: more stuff to love) or perhaps other motivations than just how good this demo is for praising it that quick and that much. By my standards, at least.

In any case, please understand that your flippant comments claiming those who don't join your cult and worship this band on the spot are supposedly being nitpicky or looking the gift's horse in the mouth only reinforce my overall impression, here. As for your "leave the hall" ancient meme and your gross strawman about us supposedly having a problem with musicians joining and quitting bands... Man is that pathetic and childish. Enjoy it all you want, I'm not keeping you. But you can fuck off if you expect me or anyone else to bow to you, this band, the scene it's deeply entrenched in just because you're a fan of it. Cheers.

if we’re gonna bitch about the lineup’s tangential band ties, i’d like to ask what phil ross is doing playing bass for a couple bm bands with a guy who has a history of playing in ns projects (and per this site, is still in some of said projects!)

Congrats, LegendMaker, you don't like things! And no, I am sure as fuck not affiliated with this band in any way, which would be obvious if you thought about it for a half second with a tenth of the energy you've spent so far hating on this band instead of dropping a "not my thing" and moving on the same way everyone else does when they don't like something. Fuck me for wanting to share something I liked and fuck everyone else for liking things you don't, eh? I don't get people like you at all...

I'm not at all like you seem to think I am, so I guess you don't get me (maybe I came across as more nitpicky and negative than I meant to, to be fair). I'm not hating on this band. I've shown a bit of interest and curiosity not just for the band but for the scene it's a part of and beyond that possibly more recent bands I've been missing out on. It's not "not my thing", is the thing. I'm just not particularly engaged by the couple demo songs I've heard (yet? as I said it might change if I listen to them again, which I'll probably do tonight actually).

Yeah, I didn't expect you to be representing the band directly or anything like that. Your OP just had a PR vibe to it that I'm guessing might be force of habit from running your own label and playing in multiple bands yourself? This was a side discussion, though. I was being critical but also curious about your perspective and others'. The fact that this doesn't move me (again maybe yet? who knows) even though it ticks a lot of boxes of things I generally like, and at the same time some of you guys seem to be very into it, well that intrigues me in all honesty.

Anyways, I'll give them another try and if this still doesn't do it for me, I'll move on. Either way, I'd be genuinely interested in what you like about this band in particular (if that's describable, maybe it's just a certain feeling or vibe from the whole package and it just sounds good to you, rather than this or that aspect hooking you more than others).

So, Savage Oath so far, what do you like about that band itself?

Great vocals, great riffs that aren't just lifted from better bands which is always a gripe when it happens too many times in a single release, great musicianship all around, really solid and catchy songwriting. I am very into heavy metal and not as a new thing (as a sidenote I find the entire term "NWOTHM" sort of irritating- it's not like heavy metal was dead before everyone started using it! would have made more sense in 2003 than it does now.... can't remember anyone slagging off like, Borrowed Time that way even if they didn't like them...) and it appeals to me in a way a lot of weaker newer bands don't because it just brings the whole package. Stylistically hits my box too because I am perpetually obsessed with this specific sound of epic USPM-type material.

My impression right now is that you're definitely approaching this in the same way I see a lot from people that just are not into the genre they're talking about- like how I'd talk about some random Dream Theater style prog band (which is not my thing at all) if I cared enough to... which is fine, but it's weird to see such a high level of effort to talk smack about a new band, I guess. As for pushing it at people that's just what I always do when I think people will like something! Why NOT put the relevant stuff in there? Goes back to way before I picked up a guitar or started the label. I like it and checked it out because of the members involved, why wouldn't other people at least want the chance to do the same thing if they're into the same bands, you know?

Fair enough on perceived aggression or whatever, internet/text can be tough for that! Definitely saw you as being more hostile than you seem to be! Apologies on my end for the same.

At this point there are so many bands like this, with the consciously epic style, the big riffs, these vocal stylings, that it is essentially a new niche of trad metal. It just happens to be one that doesn't really engage me much. It seems like a lot of them aren't really trying for catchy hooks so much as a style that comes off to me like a lesser Manilla Road without as much risks or vision - I can see the appeal but it rarely hits for me. MR and these bands' influences just had more soul to me I guess. Cauldron Born's last album is maybe the only one in this style I can say is unabashedly awesome to me.

Thanks a lot for your answers, HighwayCorsair. Sorry again if we started off on the wrong foot because of my initial approach.

I didn't really know how the term "NWOTHM" was perceived these days, I just saw it floating around in recent years (but usually worn like a badge of honors by some bands and labels online). Good to know it can be derogatory, I'll remember that. Again, I'm very out of touch with most of what happened in the metal world, especially in terms of new bands or scenes for the past two decades or so. I got into metal as a kid in the 80s, grew up with it throughout the 90s and kind of stopped following or seeking out new bands in the early 00s. I've kept doing a lot of digging, but from the old days mostly. The few newer bands I know and like I either stumbled upon by chance or they were recommended to me directly by someone on this forum.

I'm extremely into (old-school) USPM, power/speed, epic heavy metal or whatever we call it these days though. It's one of my favorite styles of metal. I'm a big fan of Manilla Road, Helstar, Agent Steel, Holy Terror, Savage Grace, Heir Apparent, Virgin Steele, Liege Lord and a ton more. I'm also into a lot of EuroPM although I've always been at odds with some of the big trends in that tradition, but what I like I really love. And also a ton of good old heavy metal, speed, and thrash mostly. I assure you, I'm not approaching this type of material as an outsider to the genre. If I come across that way, it's more along the lines of my time capsule only just opened up and aside from a few happy accidents here and there, I have almost no idea who's who nowadays and what to even give a shot to if they weren't already active 20 years ago. ^^

What Empyreal mentions makes sense to me, from a distance, as I haven't listened to most of these bands but I've seen many album covers and band names and logos that are fairly recent but seem to have been deliberately made to evoke mid-80s stuff, like a long lost Brocas Helm album or something. That's also something I'm a bit cautious with, because the "retro pizza thrash" wave passed me by and after the 20th of those bands I gave a try to and sounded like a rehash of old Exodus or Kreator riffs to the point it was hard taking them seriously I kind of wrote the whole thing off. If there are also a ton of recent bands out there called things like Graceful Inheritance or Crystal Logic with a Conan lookalike on the cover artwork and a logo reminiscent of the first Nasty Savage LP, it could be a bit hard to navigate through them to get to those who have genuine inspiration and style as opposed to simply recycling riffs from The Deluge or Battle Cry, you know?

But I'm willing to try again. Also, it occurred to me since our previous exchanges that the same musician can sometimes be barely noticeable in one band and then absolutely shine in another, and vice versa. I really liked a handful of songs from Destiny's End couple of albums, but it took me by surprise when Dan Delucie suddenly proved to be ten times the composer and guitarist I thought he was when he started Crescent Shield with the late great Mike Grant. Opposite example: after playing some of the best drum parts I've ever heard on Invictus through Atreus 2, Franck Gilchriest turned out to be just as generic and uninspired as the rest of Riot V when he joined them (which contributed to my current theory that David Defeis probably wrote the bulk of the drum parts along with most everything else back then). So yeah, it's not necessarily a given what to expect even from musicians we do know depending on the project and time period.

Okay, I'll revisit those Savage Oath tracks now. Cheers!

Yeah I mean some of the ones I don't really care for include Visigoth past that first EP and Eternal Champion - fine bands on paper that just don't excite me. Sounds too laborious and try hard to my ears and it just doesn't move me. What you said about the dozens of clone bands in retro thrash somewhat applies with new trad bands - more broadly with bands just dressing up in leather and putting screaming metal animals on album covers. But even the "good" ones just don't always captivate me.

Fair enough, man! I like all those same bands, minus the whole EUPM thing, haha. I sincerely apologize for being prickly; I have a bit of a pet peeve of seeing a lot of people that are NOT into this stuff sort of snidely punching down at new heavy metal bands while never having cared much in the first place if it's not their favorite Maiden album or whatever, and I was certainly a bit too hostile.

I certainly don't disagree with you on just about any count in this last comment- I thought that rethrash sucked, and I think a lot of modern bands doing heavy metal / USPM / speed metal / whatever you want to call it fall into all those same traps and just package it differently, and most of the new stuff out there just isn't very good.

That's a very good point with other musicians shining in other bands, and for what it's worth I think this one has a lot of that potential- I like Visigoth quite a bit, for example, but as BastardHead pointed out that's a band people listen to for the singer and not the riffs; this new band on the other hand has the same guitarist but is a lot riffier. I also dug that last Manilla Road album quite a bit (though I know that's not necessarily the predominant opinion on it) but Phil already sounds more adventurous on bass in this one. Really big fan in general of Dan DeLucie and his bands so cool to see them mentioned!

To sort of tie back around- it's totally cool if people don't like this. I just do, quite a bit, and thought it'd be nice to put it out there for other people to give a shot.

Am I the only one wondering what the fuck happened to Visigoth? I mean yeah ok they're playing shows (they're going to be at Stormbringer this year) but its been 5 years since Conqueror's Oath! Why are members doing a separate band when they have a third album they should be making?

Making music is a group effort and there's only so much you can do when other people are working on their parts, or busy, or unavailable. Unless they all start putting out other albums every year I'd assume he did it without it impacting Visigoth at all.

They mentioned in a Facebook post back in June last year that there had been some health difficulties, implying something of an unofficial hiatus:

Probably explains a fair amount of the inactivity, hopefully we get a new record soon.

This EP is great. I like how he pushes himself on the vocals more than in his other bands, and there's big riffs and galloping rhythms.



Amen brother.

I'm down with this. The world can always use more Radigan fronted projects.

Spun this demo earlier this week, and loved it. Radigan is a stellar musician, and has yet to disappoint. I can't wait for the eventual Savage Oath full-length album to spoil us this year. There's a slew of awesome heavy metal bands releasing new material this year, and I'm certain Savage Oath will deliver phenomenal music.

great single imo

Yeah, it really sucks we're already more than half a decade since their last album. I've mentioned this a few times around the forum, but according to a friend of Jake he is working on yet another side project. Any new Visigoth would be a year away at the absolute earliest, especially now with Leeland doing this project, Jamison in Blood Star, and Matt in The Otolith.

In any case, picked up this Savage Oath EP for Bandcamp Friday and it absolutely rules! Two tracks is a bit meager, but it's a killer start.

You altogether lost me when you decided to rag on one of the best bands on the planet at the moment. Who are Cauldron Born flatout worshipping? Especially considering the 2 bands you mentioned (as good as they are) aren't at all new or doing anything that crazy, revolutionary or far out, not to mention the fact that Cauldron Born had released 2 bona fide classic albums ('97/'02) years before either of those bands released an album ('05/'06).

As for Savage Oath, hard to really judge based on only 2 songs but not bad at all, they show promise and so far are better than the bands that were namedropped, except for Manilla Road obviously.

Keep the recommendations coming Highway and everybody else that contributes in that regard, I for one appreciate them, whether I like em or not.

Alrighty then, I'm off to listen to the best album of last year, Cold Steel For The Necromancer.

They had to deal with some shit. It's coming, I promise.

Savage Oath is good. It's a band who execute their various talents to an olympic athlete level.

The full-length album, Divine Battle, is out now and it's pretty excellent.

I’ll likely need a bit more time with this but the first listen is promising.

https://savageoath.bandcamp.com/album/divine-battle

Link to the album! Looking forward to seeing them next week at Hell's Heroes.

Fuck this is good.
Sounds like the lads like to play an Omen and Warlord album every now and then, but they have their own identity.