SACRED BLADE - OF THE SUN + MOON

I love me some Canadian metal history, and here's a great one, Sacred Blade's Of The Sun + Moon seeing vinyl release for the first time since 1986. And what a story this Vancouver-based band has to tell, having the interest of Roadrunner back in the day but then telling the label to walk when the band refused to budge on their vision. That vision is something else, involving a spaceship and lots of odd spellingz of wordz.

And the music? After a couple false starts, the first song proper, the title track, kicks things off with a strong American power metal vibe, Crimson Glory coming to mind immediately, never a bad thing. “fieldz the sunshrine” features Hetfield/Hammett-worthy riffing and soloing, while the singing finally hits the stratosphere, succesfully, in “salem”. The guitar work shines throughout, be it the incredibly strong rhythm work on the title track or the more gentle, atmospheric sounds of interlude “the reign of night rainz”, the Frehley's Comet glory of instrumental “to lunar windz...” or the incredible solos of prog-rock closer “moon”.

But there's a reason they held the pole position on 1983's Metal Massacre IV, and this record—originally released on Black Dragon—shows why, the only weak point being the vocals, which are often a bit flat, although that appears to just be vocalist Jeff Ulmer's style. Lots to read here in the booklet, history and photos galore, a whole evening of Canadian metal history brought back to life, best paired with a couple beers of your choice and a pair of headphones you can play this one loud on.