Sacred Ally

By Izzy Hooligan
at The Cobalt Friday July 3rd

I was feeling nostalgic and heard they have Pac Man at the Cobalt as well so figured I’d check out the Friday night metal bands and pump quarters into a video game.
I was pretty worried when I saw that even the combined age of Vivisect (Edmonton) might still not get them in the bar legally. I was even more worried when their mother was in the beer line ahead of me. However, you are definitely the most hardcore person in the room when you can rock a cardigan in a room full of leather studded jackets and piercings and clearly not give a fuck. This band was surprisingly awesome! Their lead guitarist has only been playing three years but has some magic fingers that will one day make many groupies very happy. (www.myspace.com/officialvivisect)
Next was Gales of Avalon (Alberta). First off, if you don’t do those low, growling vocals correctly you just come off sounding like Cookie Monster. Second, don’t let your drunk merch girl continuously ramble on to the writer about how good your band is. Seriously, I couldn’t even go out for a smoke in peace. This isn’t really my thing but I guess if you need theme music to play D & D to then this is for you. (www.myspace.com/galesofavalon)
Archon Legion (Victoria)… Holy fuck…. I think my ears just came. This band is so awesome I’m pretty sure that instead of a band van they just ride to their shows upon steeds through the bloody fields of their slayed foes with a backdrop of lightning. web link ... go there.... orgasm.
Sacred Ally (Calgary) are the transformers of metal. They get on stage and combine to create the wickedest metal monster in the galaxy. They come complete with cannons that shoot hot virgins while they play epic solos and crush your soul and then are all “Yeah… I just did that… no big deal.” (www.myspace.com/sacredally) - The Skinny (Vancouver)

That Calgary has a quite nicely sized scene is known, what it is also known for, though, is its heavy list towards Death and Black Metal, with the more traditional and melodic bands being few and far between. But now a three track EP from a band that has chosen the traditional Heavy/Power Metal as their weapon has reached me, with the promising title “Balls Deep In Metal” and the quartet SACRED ALLY might be a little heavier and/or rougher than your average band of this style, yet the potential is clear to hear.

Only founded in 2005, the four gentlemen are still at the very beginning of their career and thus is should not come as a complete surprise that there still are several kinks and bumps that need to be smoothened out, but the songs will definitely work great in a live setting already, time to hone the skills and work on the studio side of things as well, there basically is not much more to be said about the history of the band, so therefore right on to the songs.

“Final Juggernaut” had originally caught me on the wrong foot due to the a bit rawer vocals of Vern Thompson, but once you overcome this initial “shock” a very traditional, mid-paced Heavy Metal song unfolds, catchy, good guitarwork, with nice energy to get the crowd going, before “High Seas” goes a little bit rougher and rawer, especially in the vocals, which kind of drags the song a little down, but “Valour & War” brings back the fist-in-the-air Metal of before, faster than the previous two songs, again with very good guitar work by Colin Wo and Tyler Gregg, and the chorus is almost perfect for the live environment, as everybody can shout along this one.

Three songs are not much to sink your teeth in or to get a full idea of what the band is capable of doing, but it is a good first step and I hope that they’ll have the endurance to take the next one and come up with an even more promising follow-up, keep on rocking, guys! - The Metal Observer