Is this the battle between right or wrong or good and evil? Maybe it is the souring conflict between what is hard and what is soft? Who is going to rule? Those were fine questions and they were well connected to the case I will present you over here. I am talking about the Rock N' Growl uplifting to the 2008 release of the Maldives band, SACRED LEGACY, "Undying Heart". Originally released by the German STF Records, this album comes as a sort of a prologue to the band's upcoming release, "The Legacy Begins", which will be released by Rock N' Growl as well.

At first I thought that I was going to face a Thrash / Death Metal material, however I was introduced to a little surprise. You can say I was caught off guard. Yet, it turned out for the best. SACRED LEGACY's connection to Thrash / Death is merely circumstantial, especially when dealing with this release. The opening mediocre effort, "Beast Of Darkness", was the only thing that made any sort of correlation to extreme Metal. Most of the correlation was connected to the harsh vocals by Ali Ashraf, which was horribly produced. If I was a member of the band I would have suggested to let go of this track and dump it on another release because, as you might notice later on, it didn't fit even for a bit. After this opener everything on this release made the experience turn positive.

From "Black Velvet Part I" and on it was all about Neo-Classical, Progressive and even Power Metal. The rest of the way was packed with instrumentals rather than songs, but it made the album feel a lot more sophisticated and pleasurable. "Gods Legends", "Infinity Reloaded" and the closing "Undying Heart" made me shake a little. Those three showed me that these folks are talented and they were showing off their goods with a throw of melodic based riffs, great speed but not too extensive and the element that was most dominant, tons of passion and feel. All those attributes made the material good and flowing while presenting that there is no battle between harsh and soft, it is a fine collaboration of both and a complex one.

Not that "Dragon Wars" and the band's single "Forgot" were so bad but it gave a pretty good idea that growl type of vocals shouldn't be involved in the band's material. The last track, which is a reprise for the finishing "Undying Heart", proved about what I have just written. Clean vocals were the most suitable for the band's future material. Let's hope that they might take notice of this suggestion.