Sacred Rite

I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a hardcore Sacred Rite fan, but if there is, I am it, and this album shows and justifies why. Sacred Rite, a name not well known even within the heavy metal community. They aren't the most obscure, but they have one of the saddest quality to fame ratios in all of metal. This is classic metal.

You can tell, from the opening bass in "Wings Of Pegasus" that this will be a great album. They are obviously a traditional metal band, but they have a sound very unique to them. Their songs oven rely on bass riffs for the melody just as much as guitar. These songs are also a lot less chorus oriented anthems than many of their peers were. They often lack a distinct chorus altogether, rather opting to have almost a continuous verse. This is different to say the least, and really helps Sacred Rite stand out.

Each song is similar, but has a very distinct identity of their own. The songs never blend together, and it's always always quite obvious when the next song comes on, even if you aren't paying close attention to your music and are listening to it in the background. The production here is not exactly... good. It's noisy and the vocals are killed because of it. It isn't so bad that it takes away from the awesome music, it's just that it would have been very nice for this to have had better production, and it would have really added something to this record.

Guitarist Jimmy "Dee" Caterine provides some great guitar solos and riffs. Bass player Peter Crane is arguably the real standout member from the band. Like John Entwistle of The Who, Crane uses his bass as a melodic instrument that is at the forefront of most Sacred Rites songs, instead of it being used as a regular, boring rhythmic instrument. His bass is also often used in conjunction with Caterine's guitar during solos, and is perhaps even more memorable than Caterine during Caterine's solos! "The Blade" is a great example of this. Vocalist Mark Kaleiwahea is decent. His voice is powerful enough and has enough range to pass my standards, but he isn't anything of exceptional talent. A lot of what makes Mark's voice unimpressive is the production here, as his voice is at least above average during live performances.

If you're a fan of traditional metal you will really dig this album. There isn't a single bad song here in my opinion, and only one song is below exceptional. The songs here are catchy and memorable. I am more of a thrash and death metal fan, and even I will pull this out and listen to it on a fairly regular basis. This is an awesome record, and if you ever find it, you'd be doing yourself a great disservice if you didn't pick it up.