ALBUM REVIEW: Ultimate Force – Sacred Leather

Indianapolis metallers SACRED LEATHER are due to release their debut record Ultimate Force, an album that has been in the works since autumn 2017. The group have teamed up with Cruz Del Sur Music for the album, and the band have taken a lot of inspiration from the 80s to form Ultimate Force.

The album begins with the title track, Ultimate Force, and right from the opening riff it does feel as if you’ve been teleported straight back in time with the classic heavy metal sound setting the tone. The vocals of Dee Wrathchild also seem to have taken a lot of inspiration from the old school metal frontmen too, with the best way of describing his vocal style as a cross between Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford. The track is fairly fast paced, with the bass maintaining the rhythm throughout, and the overall sound is very much classic metal.

The recipe continues right the way through the album, which shows that the band have already established their own sound and identity, despite the majority of it sounded very similar to anyone who is a fan of generic heavy metal. It also makes it hard to pick out which tracks stand out the most, as the sound is so similar throughout all seven that feature on the record.

One track that tends to take a bit more of a different route compared to the others is Prowling Sinner, which begins with the gentle echoes of an acoustic guitar, probably one of the unlikeliest elements you’d expect to hear on a metal record. It doesn’t take too long though before the riffs kick in again, and the whole band builds up slowly before the pace intensifies and the rhythm increases once more. While the majority of the track is the same as the others, the intro helps to distinguish this one in particular.

The final two tracks, The Lost Destructor/Priest Of The Undoer and Dream Searcher also take a different route, with the tempo being much slower. Both these tracks are over eight minutes long, and appear to be the ballads that feature on a metal record, but again the sound is good and it all works well together.

Ultimate Force is a decent debut record, it sets the tone of what potential listeners should expect from SACRED LEATHER in the future as well as performing live, and they have really nailed that classic metal sound which was prominent in the 80s. The only issue with basing your sound around classic metal is that it has been done by countless bands over the years, and started with the likes of IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST, who themselves are still producing records, so in order to stand out with this kind of sound you need to do something spectacular with it.

That being said, Ultimate Force is a good enough record, but the sound is so similar to what many of us have heard over the years that it doesn’t stand out enough from the crowd and is likely to fall through the cracks.

Rating: 6/10

Ultimate Force is out now via Cruz Del Sur Music.

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