interview: Sacred Leather

The traditional heavy metal band Sacred Leather from the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. has been campaigning for classic heavy metal to anyone that will listen. Their new album is called Ultimate Force. Check it, this is Sacred Leather, holy denim, sacred leather, heavy metal forever.

Good work on the album Ultimate Force! Who is answering this interview?

Cheers, Dee Wrathchild (vocals) here!

The metal fans today love their metal with growling and screaming. Who had the wild and crazy idea of having a real singer?

Sacred Leather started with a sound that definitely leaned more on the extreme side in the early days. I came into the lineup at a later date. SL always wanted to play traditional HEAVY METAL, with each song progressively migrating back to the roots of the classic sound. Magnus (bass) was probably the dude who made the call to demote former vocalist/lead guitarist (the Devil’s Hellion) to solely handle guitar duties. I don’t know that it was crazy having clean vocals over the material, it made all the sense in the world to us when shaping out a sound which was executed within the template of our HEAVY METAL forefathers.

How did the band find you?!

We were all aware of one another. Indianapolis is a tightknit city, so we all had mutual friends and acquaintances within the metal community. At the time I was asked to sing for Sacred Leather, they had been scoping me out as I performed with a classic metal cover band here in town. They played me the tunes, shit was rocking, and here we are. Now we are all brothers.

Can you tell us about your rhythm section?

Magnus (bass/co-founder) breathes HEAVY METAL as does every member in this band. It is a requirement to playing with us. We aren’t smoke and mirrors, this sound and lifestyle is who we are. Nobody is putting on a front and then going home and spinning some soft dick hipster shit.

Jailhouse (drums) left Sacred Leather after tracking Ultimate Force. Though the youngest member we have had, Jailhouse played as though he was delivered to us in a time capsule sent straight from 79. Our new drummer, Don Diamond, will bring a different energy into this band. Don is a seasoned punisher of the skins. Expect more flash, more sex, and more speed on upcoming Sacred Leather releases.

How did your bassist decide to take on the instrument and stay with it? When are you going to let him do a bass solo like Michael Anthony used to do in those old Van Halen concert videos drinking whiskey?!

Each member of Sacred Leather started off on the drums. I would think that Magnus had a smooth transition onto the bass, being a percussive minded player. Magnus could break out some flash in the future, however he seems much more concerned with playing whatever best services the song. Fret not over his whiskey supply; it’s been flowing strong since I’ve met him.

Did your drummer have the best parents ever? Don’t they have to be, in order to put up with a kid banging on the drums in the house?

Never met either Jailhouse or Don Diamond’s parents, however they raised some strapping gentlemen who know how to play some fucking drums.

How many guitarists do you have as permanent members? What is your secret recipe for guitar?

We have two guitarists, JJ Highway (lead guitar) and Carloff Blitz (lead guitar). JJ writes much of the material. Magnus contributes to this also.

I wish there were secrets to give you, all I know is they bust their ass and the result is some of the best written HEAVY METAL coming out right now.

How did you discover that you could sing? Were you listening to a Scorpions or Judas Priest album and singing along and thought: Hey, I think I might be able to do this!

Pretty much exactly like that. I was in a van with a band that I drummed for at the time, some classic shit came on the radio and I sang along **record scratch** Everybody turned and looked at me like, “fuck man, we didn’t know you could do that.” Likewise, neither did I! Fast forward, tireless hours and reps of me working on refining my voice and range up to the performance you hear on Ultimate Force.

Could I learn to sing, too? I mean, I sound pretty awful!

Sure, go ahead and sing. Being awful has never stopped certain vocalists in the past, haha.

Your entire album is available for listening at Bandcamp! Can you tell us about the various formats that are available?

Yup, it’s available on Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes, bigcartel.com/sacredleatherofficial, Cruz Del Sur Music, etc.

What merch do you have?

Ultimate Force on all formats: cassette, vinyl, digital, cd. Additionally, we have shirts and some other odd-end merch, most of which you can find at: bigcartel.com/sacredleatherofficial

What is next for Sacred Leather?

We have some upcoming gigs in our area in addition to fielding some other offers in gigs both in the Midwest and afar. Follow us on social media to stay in the loop on any future shows.

Are the Europeans liking your new work?

Oh yea, most of the heat we have felt off of Ultimate Force has come from Europe. This is extremely flattering because they have generated the best HEAVY METAL ever written. We definitely plan to trek across the pond and rock their asses off in the near future.

From Ultimate Force you have made a video for the song “Power Thrust”. Are there more videos that you will be making? Oh yea, always planning videos. Subscribe to us on YouTube so you see them when they drop!

Thank you for your time!

Cheers!

sacredleather.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/leathersacredleather