{"id":35969,"date":"2014-01-02T07:56:02","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T12:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=35969"},"modified":"2014-01-02T07:56:02","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T12:56:02","slug":"sacred-warrior-waiting-in-darkness-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/sacred-warrior-waiting-in-darkness-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Warrior | Waiting in Darkness<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SacredIt is intriguing that in a year that witnessed the release of two divisive Queensryche creations under divergent incarnations, the most Queensryche-sounding album of 2013 has been issued by resurrected white-metal band Sacred Warrior, who have returned to the God-rock game after going dark (figuratively, not spiritually) for over twenty years.<\/p>\n

Sacred Warrior never gained mainstream notoriety, but in the burgeoning \u201880s Christian metal movement, they were a force to be reckoned with alongside Deliverance, Saint, Barren Cross, and all the other renegades who were rockin\u2019 for the Rock, moshin\u2019 for the Master, and headbangin\u2019 for the Holy One. Fronted by the soaring Geoff Tate-esque vocals of Rey Parra and sporting a crunchy melodic metal sound reminiscent of Queensryche, Sacred Warrior swiftly became mandatory inclusion in any respectable Christian rocker\u2019s cassette collection.<\/p>\n

Waiting in Darkness<\/em> is everything craved in a Sacred Warrior comeback \u2026 save for Rey Parra. Instead, we are graced with new vocalist Eric Prinsen, who more than holds his own, singing in the same Tate\/Parra vein that is vital to Sacred Warrior\u2019s sound, ensuring the band\u2019s formula does not fragment like Humpy Dumpty doing a suicide dive off the Sears Tower. In fact, it could be argued the band has never sounded better. Granted, the new songs have the disadvantage of not being filtered through nostalgia, but when evaluated without bias against the Sacred Warrior discography of old, several of these new tracks give the classics a run for their money.<\/p>\n

So yeah, the band is still firing on all cylinders, with only a couple blemishes minimally marring what is a mostly masterful album. One of those missteps is the opener, \u201cDesperately Wicked,\u201d which hurtles out of the gate with the bludgeoning heaviness of blunt force trauma but is hampered by subpar production that overpowers Prinsen\u2019s vocals in a quest to crush the listener. The other error is the sore-thumb ballad \u201cJealous Love,\u201d which feels woefully out of place and brings the album to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n

But the pros far outweigh the cons, and those pros are a plethora of raging metal tracks. \u201cFear Me\u201d is the highlight, a fiercer-than-a-pack-of-pissed-off-angels anthem that slams your ears like sonic bullets, cherry-topped by a chorus that defines metal perfection by being catchy without resorting to cred-bleeding commercialism. Also demanding attention is \u201cLiving Sacrifice,\u201d which earns rank as a new Sacred Warrior classic, it\u2019s so bad to the bone. The snarl in Prinsen\u2019s voice is worth the price of admission alone and the pounding riff and fist-pumping rhythms ensure body-slamming satisfaction.<\/p>\n

Skepticism is natural when a decades-dormant band rises from slumber, but Sacred Warrior have released an album that should silence skeptics as surely as a cutthroat razor across both carotids. Unless they are obsessively devoted to Rey Parra and refuse to listen to the band without him wielding the microphone, it\u2019s hard to imagine any Sacred Warrior fan being disappointed with Waiting in Darkness. Maybe somebody should send Queensryche a copy to remind them how they\u2019re supposed to sound.<\/p>\n

Genre: Christian Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nEli Prinsen (vocals)
\nBruce Swift (guitar)
\nSteve Watkins (bass)
\nTony Velasquez (drums)
\nJoe Petit (keyboards)<\/p>\n

Track Listing
\n1. Desperately Wicked
\n2. Waiting in Darkness
\n3. Sinking Sand
\n4. In Dust and Ashes
\n5. Fallen Hero
\n6. Fear Me
\n7. Long Live the King
\n8. Jealous Love
\n9. Living Sacrifice
\n10. Day of the Lord
\n11. Temples on Fire<\/p>\n

Label: Independent<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.sacredwarrior.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen – Senior Columnist — It is intriguing that in a year that witnessed the release of two divisive Queensryche creations under divergent incarnations, the most Queensryche-sounding album of 2013 has been issued […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":35970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[2317,7340,8577,8578],"class_list":{"0":"post-35969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-christian-metal","10":"tag-sacred-warrior","11":"tag-waiting-in-darkness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}