Savage Oath - Divine Battle (2024)

★★★★

While not totally thrilled with Brendan Radigan’s work with Sumerlands in 2022 or the debut EP he released with SAVAGE OATH last year, I was really hoping this would change my views. I’m a fan of his other projects – namely Battle Ruins and Stone Dagger – but after all the hype surrounding SAVAGE OATH, I was expecting this to be top tier. And the verdict is... it rules!! It opens with an absolute ripper of a track – “Knight of the Night” – and it’s pretty much full speed ahead until the final track, an acoustic ballad that in many ways pays tribute to Blind Guardian’s “The Bard Song.” Brendan is in full swing here, with some absolutely insane high vocals and an overall 110% delivery. I’ve never, and I mean never, heard him sing this loud and at this intensity before. The Stone Dagger tracks come close, but this is just on another level. The riffs are fast and heavy, the solos are shreddy but not obnoxious, and the rhythm section is just absolutely thunderous. It’s triumphant as hell and as epic as can be – as all U.S. power metal should. Truly, I’m blown away. SAVAGE OATH, you’ve won me over.

FAVORITE TRACKS: "Knight of the Night," "Madness of the Crowd," "Savage Oath"

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Originally published in March '24 (Issue No. 2)