SACRED OATH are a band that hail from Danbury in Connecticut, USA, and have been going since 1985. Now, some 40 years after the fact, Stormspell Records has decided to release the first two demos (“Sacred Oath” [1985] and “Shadow Out Of Time” [1986]) and put them together on a compilation album, albeit in reverse order. The title is quite simple; “Demo Anthology (1985-1986)”. I like SACRED OATH, as they have musical similarities to bands like MERCYFUL FATE, but also some Progressive bands like very early FATES WARNING. There are a lot more influences you will hear, but they will expose themselves to you when you take a listen.

One thing is for sure; you can’t escape the fact that these are demo recordings! The sound is meagre in comparison to a properly recorded studio album, but still good enough for release. I don’t know how much polishing has been done to get the original recordings up to this standard, but the people responsible can be proud of themselves. Everything that SACRED OATH plays can be heard in the way it was recorded. Musically you can hear that the band was ready for their next steps, as the songs are rather good and have a proper body. What does lack a bit is the vocal performance by Rob Thorne. It becomes very clear that he still had a long way to go before he reached what would become his very distinguishable personal tone of voice. To me that only adds to the charm of these recordings.

I have to admit that If I would have received these demos on my desk when I was booking bands in our youth centre, SACRED OATH would have definitely been a contender to get themselves a spot on one of our concert nights. But please, do yourself a favour and don’t expect too much of “Demo Anthology (1985-1986)”. What you bare confronted with are just demo recordings that probably (and hopefully) didn’t cost an arm and a leg, and not everybody is ready and able to appreciate them, especially when you are in the habit of comparing them to the finished article that you hear on well produced records. If you are one of those who likes to see what a simple start can lead to in the case of SACRED OATH, then by all means go ahead and see what you make of “Demo Anthology (1985-1986)”.