Sacred Oath ~ USA ~ Connecticut

A Crystal Vision (1987)

---11/17/18

One of those oddball US metal albums from the mid to late 80s. Technically in the US Power Metal category, this one is really rough around the edges, with high pitched vocals and many ideas and changes per song. Excellent dual guitar playing as to be expected. A bit like an unpolished Fates Warning, who were a neighboring band in their native Connecticut. The production is pretty cheap and the drums are thuddy, but it's hard not to love stuff like this. CD adds four bonus tracks, of which two are 1997 re-recordings from this album, and allows the listener a chance to hear the material with a better production, and proves the songwriting is solid. The other two are also re-recordings of tracks that weren't on their debut but were part of their repertoire.

---11/3/25

Had this review buried in a long unpublished journal, before I consolidated what I wanted to accomplish with them. As you can tell by my modern journals, I'm completely worn out with these slick and polished Dream Theater clones. Sacred Oath is the antidote to that. The vocals have this schizophrenic King Diamond meets Anacrusis charm about them. High pitched than growl, but not death growls, just gravelly sounding. Fates Warning is the correct reference, though not circa 1987. More like how they would have sounded before Night on Brocken with progressive structures taken from The Spectre Within. I've seen Mercyful Fate thrown out there as a reference and that's accurate as well. The music presented here is entirely refreshing to the ears. It seems they have no idea what they are doing, and not sure they do, but thank goodness for that. I love the randomness on how the music develops, but it's all within the rails. I also appreciate their sound, once again on the dirty side, early 80s underground metal all the way. Can't imagine any modern band truly replicating this kind of album. It was "of the era". My era.

Ownership: 2001 Sentinel Steel (CD). Booklet with history, lyrics, and photos. Different artwork than the original album (shown here and also on the back of the booklet).

11/17/18 (acquired / review); 11/3/25 (update)

This was to be their only album from the 80s. They reformed and since 2005 have released eight albums. I haven't heard any of them. If I do, I'll report back here.

11/3/25 (new entry)