Band:	Sacred Outcry
Album:	Damned For All Time
Style:	Heavy metal, Power metal
Release date:	September 2020

01. Timeless
02. Legion Of The Fallen
03. Sacred Outcry
04. Where Ancient Gods Are Still Hailed
05. Scared To Cry
06. Lonely Man
07. Crystal Tears
08. Damned For All Time
09. Farewell

Sacred Outcry formed in 1998 and they went into the studio in 2001 to record their debut full length Damned For All Time. Two years later the band came to a halt with only a rough mix left behind. I don't know what happened to Sacred Outcry during all these years but the album has finally been recorded and it is now here for everyone to embrace it. Epic power metal worshipers of the world unite and raise your fists in the air because this one is for you.

From the first moments of Damned For All Time, I knew I would love this album. After the short atmospheric intro, the mid tempo, galloping rhythm of "Legion Of The Fallen" is creating all these emotions epic power metal is supposed to create. Its anthemic character makes the heart pump beneath the chest, the soaring voice of Yannis Papadopoulos gives goosebumps, and I am thinking that it was a blessing in the end that Damned For All Time took almost two decades to be released because otherwise it wouldn't have the best vocalist of his generation sing on it. The opening track's extraordinary solo gives the final hit, confirming that this is not just another run-of-the-mill heavy/power release.

The album is pure, unadulterated power metal, but it is varied enough to include many different facets of the genre. "Sacred Outcry" is an absolute stormbringer of a song with its dark mood and thrashy riffing reminding of Iced Earth in their early years. "Where Ancient Gods Are Still Hailed" evokes the lyricism and the harmonies first introduced by the mighty Warlord. "Lonely Man" addresses to the European p(fl)ower metal crowd, only it thankfully has more 'power' than 'flower' in it. The dramatic, ballad-styled "Scared To Cry" and "Crystal Tears" both tap on the more sensitive side of this style of music.

Which brings us to the last two songs of Damned For All Time that take up quite a bit more than a third of its total runtime.

The title track is the flagship of this album. It is a 14-minute epic masterpiece that flows like a journey through many different landscapes, and it is a song that could have come out from a collaboration between Helloween and Virgin Steele. The album is generally driven by the guitars and the vocals with some keyboards adding to the atmosphere, and this doesn't change on this particular song, but the bass and the drums also find enough room to really make a difference here. Most bands would wrap it up right there because any song after that would collapse under the weight of the title track, but no; Sacred Outcry have one last ace under their sleeve with "Farewell", a song made from the most epic moments of Manowar and Domine put together.

You can tell from all the name-dropping that Sacred Outcry have not discovered fire. But they live and breathe fire all right. Damned For All Time harkens back to a golden age for power metal while simultaneously forging its own bright future.

"See all your people now running away
Cause Stormbringer has brought me to slay
Yes, your souls are the price you will pay"