SACRED LEATHER - USA

Ultimate Force - 2018 - Cruz Del Sur
Keep The Fire Burning - 2025 - King Volume/Wise Blood

Sacred Leather image
  
 
Members
Vocals
The Dream Is Dead, Summon The Destroyer, Black Arrows Of Filth & Impurity, Demiricous, Skeletonwitch, Kvlthammer, Iron Diamond, The Secrecy, Stranger Attractor, Christ Beheaded, Flesher, Wretch, Chrome Waves, Rituaal>>DEE WRATHCHILD [DUSTIN BOLTJES]>>Iron Diamond, The Secrecy, Stranger Attractor, Christ Beheaded, Flesher, Wretch, Chrome Waves, Rituaal

Guitar
Critical Response Team, Wasteland D.C., World Eater, Chaotic Neutral, Kvlthammer, Coffinworm>>JJ Highway [Josh Shrontz]>>Chaotic Neutral, Kvlthammer, Coffinworm - Deadmen, Kvlthammer, Kata Sarka, Coffinworm, The Dream Is Dead>>Carloff Blitz [Carl Byers]>>Kvlthammer, Kata Sarka, Deadmen - Save Our Ship, Danger Silent, ReEmerge, Coven>>CVON OWENS [CHRISTOPHER VAUGHN]>>Danger Silent, ReEmerge, Coven - LYNN ST. MICHAELS

Bass
Flesher>>MAGNUS LEGRAND [DAVID JAGGAR]>>Flesher

Drum
Jailhouse - DON DIAMOND




History & Biography
This Indianapolis, Indiana, USA-based hard rock and power metal band was activated in 2014 and issued a cassette called Hunger In The Night through Ritual Knife Records. The act was more extreme and was a trio to start. Bassist Magnus chose the name. Members used pseudonyms. Singer Mr. Wrathchild was best known as the drummer for Skeletonwitch (and for being in a million projects, as well as setting up hometown gigs). Then came the live independent release Live Leather. Cassette 2016 contained no more than two songs. The band's line-up was updated and had two former Kvlthammer drummers in its ranks. In fact, the band had a split release with that band too. Cruz Del Sur Music picked the band up and issued the group's debut album to begin 2018. Carl Byers had joined in 2017. He too was in and out of other acts with his band-mates. The debut album was called Ultimate Force and was taped and produced by the act's guitarists.

2025's Keep The Fire Burning had arrived seven years after the debut, but the gap in time was not necessarily large enough to warrant the new album's intro being called Resurrection. The fact of the matter was that the band had died and come back from the dead. Still, the line-up had undergone an upheaval and only singer Wrathchild and bassist LeGrand remained. Gigs ended 2025 and began 2026.


Reviews

SACRED LEATHER - KEEP THE FIRE BURNING - KING VOLUME  
No wonder the cover of Sacred Leather's new album features a 'metal heart.' The album is called Keep The Fire Burning. There's a multi-year gap between this release and the band's previous record, which explains why the intro is called Resurrection.
The surprisingly melodic intro leads into energetic guitars and drumming, coupled with a fast and furious rhythm. When the vocals lurch in, they are both high-pitched and gritty. It is a promising start. Phantom Highways (Hell Is Comin' Down), for instance, is the type of song that bands need to write more of… speedy, aggressive and sitting on a good riff. The lyrics are not as impressive. Neither is the production that buries the guitars. We know who is not the band's leader now. Too bad, those rapid-fire solos are cool - and too short. The drum sound too is dull. These make the song lose its punch somewhat. Still, the sound is good enough and not a calamity by any stretch of the imagination; yet, the bigger concern is how the good songs are interspersed with middling filler tracks making for a record that misses out on its potential. Take a track like Like Malevolent Eyes, which is less a fully formed song and more like a collection of metal sounds and melodies without coherence or a meaningful rhythm section. The band can and does write solid hard rock and power metal songs, but the padding is here too. The slow songs, Wake Me Up, Tear Out My Heart and Mistress Of The Sun, occasionally nod to the likes of Killer Dwarfs and Dokken. Yet, the bigger nod is to Helstar, Vicious Rumors and Judas Priest. Wake Me Up has a superlative solo nevertheless.
These non-Indians are good, but their songs sometimes get lost amid the stylistic choices they make and lose sight of the need to craft a song as opposed to a collection of riffs and rhythms. - Ali "The Metallian"


Interviews







Sacred Leather