Sacred Leather Brings the Sexy back to Heavy Metal
Do you enjoy leather and chains? Who doesn’t! How about shirtless men? Hell yes you do! Are you a fan of Judas Priest, or the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in general? Okay, get over here and listen to Sacred Leather. Not a single person’s head will go un-banged, I swear to God (aka Rob Halford).
Formed in Indianapolis about three years ago, they started out playing in the style of Venom and Celtic Frost; but after two years they switched it up to something similar to the NWOBHM bands we all love. A friend compared them to Judas Priest and I think that is the best possible description for Sacred Leather. It’s a huge compliment, of course, because they do that particular style of music so much justice. Their image is chains, leather, and heavy metal. This music is chains, leather, and heavy metal personified — I mean audio-ified. Or something. Hit this jam:
Right?! Let’s run down the list: Riffs? Check. Fist-banging hooks? Like a mofukka. Guitar solos? Plentiful. Dual guitar harmonies? For days! Sex appeal? We would have to embiggen our scale to give them an appropriate rating. Top it all off with some King Diamond-esque vokills. And would you believe this? Insanely wonderful in the live setting. THAT IS JUST CRAZY TALK. But it’s true talk (or “true news” as I choose to call it). They bring it live. Here’s a picture from a small, but packed, venue in St. Louis (9/2/17):
(I was about 18 inches from singer Wrathchild’s fist there. Which turns out is the best seat in the house.)
As of right now there exists a two-song EP on Bandcamp (get yourself a cassette) and a live video to watch on YouTube, so three songs are generally available to the public. For the actual live show, we heard about 10 songs total and each was, oh I would say, a 10/10 in itself. You simply must hear the other track from that EP, titled “The Lost Destructor/Priest of the Under”, it’s eight minutes of pure bliss:
The folks in Sacred Leather are working on their debut album right now. It could be out early 2018. We caught them on the fifth or sixth date of a tour (please correct me if I’m wrong, dudes), so I feel like we have discovered a band just starting out, who is going to become a household name in heavy metal soon. And they are super nice guys to boot. Fun too. And sexy. There was just not enough ass to kick.
You can also follow them on this one social media platform that’s going to replace actual life soon.
(image via)
