Sacred Steel is a German heavy metal band.

History

Sacred Steel formed in the 80s when almost all of the members were already playing in bands that could gather underground acclaim. However, after forming Sacred Steel they were able to draw larger attention and success. After opening for bands like Blitzkrieg they were signed to Metal Blade Records in April 1997 being the first German band ever to do so. Their debut album Reborn in Steel was released October 1997 and with great press and fan response, Sacred Steel became one of the top German metal acts in a short time, maybe also due to the renaissance of true metal and successes of bands like HammerFall. They released two more albums on Metal Blade: Wargods of Metal in 1998 (produced by Bill Metoyer of Slayer and Helstar fame) and Bloodlust in 2000. Bloodlust was a concept album that saw the band broaden their stylistic horizon but, remaining a committed true metal band. They played many festivals in Europe, mostly underground ones but also the renowned Wacken Open Air twice and went on tour with many bands, e.g. Primal Fear and Children of Bodom. After signing to Massacre Records they released their fourth album Slaughter Prophecy in 2002 which again saw the band playing around with a wide variety of influences that revealed the decades-long love of the musicians for all kinds of heavy metal. Some of the new songs even bordered on doom metal or death metal. The last album of the original lineup was Iron Blessings that was released with a big bang in October 2004 – that very release show has been turned into a live CD and DVD under the title Live Blessings (released 2006). After a year-long hiatus Jörg Michael Knittel and Oliver Großhans, the two original guitarists, left Sacred Steel to pursue their death metal project My Darkest Hate. Jens Sonnenberg switched from bass guitar to guitar and two new members were quickly brought in: Kai Schindelar on bass guitar, the former guitar tech and roadie Jonas Khalil as additional guitarist. 2006 saw the release of the first album with the new lineup which had been recorded with Sodom producer Harris Johns. Hammer of Destruction was a 'back to the roots'-album for the band and had very strong songs that reminded of rather archetypical heavy metal bands like early Metallica, Iron Maiden, Jag Panzer, Megadeth or Helstar. It was again a success with fans and media and even spawned a video clip to "Maniacs of Speed".

Musical style and aesthetic

Sacred Steel can be located somewhere between classic European true metal and heavier thrash or speed metal, but also draw many influences like fantasy metal or doom metal. They have albeit managed to create a very genuine style from their first album on which is mostly due to the unique and unusual vocal performance of singer Gerrit P. Mutz. Their lyrics deal with typical genre topics like battles (especially visible on the concept album Bloodlust) or heavy metal in general and offer an honest and dedicated, yet good humoured stance (e.g. the anthems "Sacred Steel" and "Sacred Bloody Steel").

Members

Selected discography

1997 – Reborn in Steel

1998 – Wargods of Metal

2000 – Bloodlust

2002 – Slaughter Prophecy

2004 – Iron Blessings

2006 – Live Blessings (Live-2CD+DVD)

2006 – Hammer of Destruction

2006 – Hammer of Destruction (Bonus CD)

2009 – Carnage Victory

The bonus DVD contains a full concert of Queens of Metal 2009, a studio report and one live clip from Summer Breeze 2009 produced by Sacred Steel.

2013 – The Bloodshed Summoning

2016 – Heavy Metal Sacrifice