Sacred Alien

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Sacred Alien
General information
origin Manchester , England
Genre (s) New Wave of British Heavy Metal
founding 1980
resolution 1984
Last occupation
John Murney
Mark Robo
Martin Ainscow
Sean Canning
former members
Electric bass
 Dave Clowes
Electric bass
 Paul Davies
Drums
 Chris Lea
Drums
 Darren Wilcock

Sacred Alien was an English New Wave of British Heavy Metal band from Manchester that was formed in 1980 and disbanded in 1984.

history

The quartet was founded in October 1980, with singer Sean Canning and drummer Chris Lea forming the core of it. They had met at art college . The line-up was initially supplemented by guitarist Martin Ainscow and bassist Dave Clowes. A first demo followed in early 1981, which includes songs such as Portrait , Eternal Flame , Both Sides of the Globe and Energy . This allowed the band to increase their popularity, which they played on the local radio, the station Piccadilly Radio . The band also took part in the UMIST Festival , where Diamond Head , Silverwing , Rox (at that time still under their name Venom) and Tora Tora took part. After the band was featured in the Armed and Ready section of Kerrang magazine , the self-financed single Spiritual Planet was released on the Greenwood Music label towards the end of the year . The song Energy is represented as the B-side . Since the label lettering of the two songs was swapped, the band had to stick their own stickers over them by hand. The single sold quite well in the north of England and partly beyond. A tour to promote the single could not take place because Lea and Clowes left the line-up in the first half of 1982. Then the bassist Paul Davies and the drummer Darren Wilcock joined as new members in the summer. Afterwards there were occasional appearances as well as demo recordings at various sessions. Labels like Karmaflage Records showed interest, but no record deal was made. In 1983 the group took part in the Salford Glamfest , which also featured Silverwing, Cloven Hoof and China Rogue. The band also held other concerts where they played new songs such as Nightmares in Paradise , Attack and Do You See Me . In addition, she also covered songs such as 20th Century Boy , originally by T. Rex , or the Jimi Hendrix song Foxy Lady . In mid-1983, the band announced that they had no record deal to release another self-financed single. Mark Robo was now represented as drummer and John Murney as bassist, as Davies and Wilcock had left the line-up in mid-1983. Instead of an independent publication, however, appeared in the same year on Heighway Robbery Wreckords, the label of the band manager Warren Heighway, a split release with Virgin, on which Sacred Alien can be heard with the song Legends . Since the sound carrier was only partially successful, the band split up at the beginning of 1984. In 2006 the band manager Warren Heighway died.

style

According to Malc Macmillan in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia , the band was ahead of their time at the time, which led to their being classified in glam metal bands like Silverwing or Rox. The band tried to distance itself from the glam stereotype. The music of Sacred Alien was, however, technically more demanding, whereby rush influences were audible especially in the early days , so that comparisons with Kraken , Juno's Claw , Hell or Marquis de Sade are more appropriate. The single offers technically demanding, unpredictable arrangements , with mystical and cosmic texts that would be performed with a characteristic singing. As a result, the band deviates significantly from the usual NWoBHM standard. Matthias Mader found in NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days that the band is pursuing "a kind of future rock / space concept". Visually one orientates oneself to Glam and Cloven Hoof, musically however there is hard and fast music of the NWoBHM with good vocals. The texts would deal with "magical stone circles and extraterrestrial visitors". In The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal a strong resemblance to the singing was at David Lee Roth noted.

Discography

  • 1981: Demo 1981 (demo, self-published)
  • 1981: Spiritual Planet (single, Greenwood Music )
  • 1983: Sacred Alien / Virgin (split single with Virgin, Heighway Robbery Wreckords)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Malc Macmillan: The NWOBHM Encyclopedia . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931624-16-3 , p. 498 f .
  2. ^ A b Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Manfred Kerschke: NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days . Iron Pages, Berlin 1995, p. 133 f .
  3. ↑ Biography. rockdetector.com, archived from the original on June 25, 2016 ; accessed on June 14, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Sacred Alien. nwobhm.com, accessed June 15, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Tony Jasper, Derek Oliver: The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal . Facts on File Inc., New York 1983, ISBN 0-8160-1100-1 , pp. 288 .