This week finally sees the release of Sacred Oath’s long awaited self-titled album. To mark the occasion it seems appropriate for Eurorock to give the European metal scene a huge Bastille Day pat on the back. Why? Let me explain.

Sacred Oath, who originally formed in 1985 in Bethel, Connecticut before disappearing, reformed in 2007. The fact that they are back at all is largely thanks to their quite significant underground European following. In short they kept the memory of Sacred Oath truly alive and well. Not bad considering that the band didn’t release a thing for over twenty years.

Until then, their one and only studio album was A Crystal Vision which was released back in 1988. Sadly, by the time the album had achieved something of a cult status at the forefront of the American power-metal movement, the band was falling apart.

Sacred Oath had gone as quickly as they had arrived citing time honored problems with their record label going bust and general disillusionment with the reality of the music business. The album remained a classic and was finally re-released in 2001 by Sentinel Steel Records by popular demand.

Inspired by the success of the re-release, they finally got back together and re-recorded their album as A Crystal Revision, which was released in 2005. It still didn’t restart Sacred Oath as fully as hoped because they were all busy with their own various band projects. However, when frontman Rob Thorne’s band began to wind down, chance would have it that it was the right time for the rest of Sacred Oath too.

Rob contacted the others and they decided to finally record Darkness Visible, the intended follow up to A Crystal Vision, which had been written back in the late eighties but had never been released. By 2008 they were back touring Europe and the live album ‘Till Death Do Us Part captures the resurgent band in all its powerful glory.

The anticipation surrounding the release of this new album was heightened further when the date was put back from May until now. As we waited you may have already caught the “Counting Zeros” video taken from the album, albeit in a shortened version with some of the most barbed lyrics missing. The full seven minute version is a contender for album highlight and states emphatically that Sacred Oath are most definitely back.

Article Author: Jeff Perkins

Jeff is a writer who lives in France. He writes CD/DVD box sets, music reviews and has had a book published about David Byron of Uriah Heep. He is 'busy' exploring the music of Europe with his wife Debbie and dog Dylan. It's Dylan that does the writing of course. …

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