Sacred Warrior - "Master's Command"

Sacred Warrior - Master's Command

1989, Intense

1. Master's Command

2. Beyond the Mountain

3. Evil Lurks

4. Bound in Chains

5. Unfailing Love

6. Paradise

7. Uncontrolled

8. Many Will Come

9. Onward Warriors

10. The Flood

11. Holy, Holy, Holy

This is the first Sacred Warrior album I heard and it has remained my favorite to this day. The songs are just amazing and Ray Perra's voice is on point. I think the production on this is not very good but then again, back in the day, none of the production was good on some of this old Intense records stuff. I think my favorites off of this one are "Beyond the Mountain," "Many Will Come," and "The Flood." "The Flood" features vocals by one Roger Martinez (Vengeance Rising).

I saw these guys a couple of times at Kingdom Bound and if Roger was there selling Vengeance merch he could always be goaded on stage for a rendition of "The Flood." Gotta say, it was pretty awesome.

I also remember giving this tape to an old pastor of mine so that he could look at the lyrics. My cousin and I wanted to have a "Headbanger's Ball" in the church gym but the pastor had to check all the lyrics to make sure they were okay. So my cousin and I sat in his office trying to defend this music. He asked asinine questions like, "Why does there have to be an instrumental?" and his wife asked, "Why does it have to be so worldly?" Ugh! You kids have it easy these days!

Useless Fact: On my CD copy the little keyboard intro is marked as its own track but I don't think that's how it was originally.