Sacred Season (Pride & Joy Music Classixx Vol. 15)
product: Sacred Season – Sacred Season
release date: 28.02.2025
format: CD & digital
territory: Shop Exclusive
LINER NOTES
Sacred Season? That’s fine melodic rock from Germany. The band from Raisdorf near Kiel in Northern Germany is actually part of the very first Wacken Open Air in 1990. Sacred Season is founded by Marco Schultz (v/g) and Oliver Kukla (d) in 1986 playing in a garage and soon after realizing that bass and keyboards are pretty crucial to their very sound. Thomas Rohwedder and Björn Gust, both on keys, join the ranks. Rohwedder leaves soon after. Little later, Wulf Rathke (b) is on board and the band puts out two demos, “Sacred Season“ (1988) and “Taste Of Paradise“ (1990) with four tracks each, on cassette, both selling 500 copies locally within a year. History sees them playing some small gigs around their hometown of Kiel and the band feels more and more that the time is right for a proper album. An offer by a German major record company is rejected due to their demand to firstly sing German and secondly to replace all musicians except Schultz. Well…friends don’t do that.
1990 sees the band playing some memorable shows, one of which takes places in the course of the reunification celebrations in October 1990 in front of 10.000 people and another one is Wacken Open Air which even sees the four-piece returning in 2014 to celebrate 25 years of Wacken Open Air Festival. Schultz’ father is responsible for the booking back then and by chance sees a flyer of a new festival in the little village of Wacken. He calls them and…they play. They do so under the mis-spelled name of Sacret Season on the festival posters, though. 25 years later that mistake is corrected and to the band’s sheer surprise, their AOR and melodic sounds are well-received by thousands of fans and even a Sacred Season “Meet & Greet“ takes place. “We were not sure who we would meet but the organizers quickly explained“, laughs Schultz. But back to 1990: Several sold-out shows in their hometown of Kiel take place, too, at the time. Then Sven „Willy“ Wilking (d) joins the band replacing Kukla, who joins the Kiel-based hard rock outfit Zötl. Wilking adds some more commercial sounds to the four-piece.
The following two years sees several successful talent competition participations like “John Lennon Talent-Award“ or “Yamaha Band Explosion“ and some more which ended up in Sacred Season performing in several TV-Shows like e.g. „Hut Ab!“ with a blistering version of the track “Voices“. “It should have been on the first record but the producers changed too much and we could not stand it anymore, so it was left out of the debut“, Rathke remembers. Nevertheless, this track has always been an absolute fan favorite.
In 1993, Gust leaves the band due to personal reasons and Christian Meier is the new keyboarder. Rathke and Meier know each other from school. Meier is crucial in the upcoming recording processes as he co-produces the songs and does everything from mix to master. “Christian joined our ranks and was instantly willing to pay his share to record the first album“, states Schultz. The production of the first CD demands an investment of 10.000 German Mark to which each member equally contributes. The CDs sell fast and even a small amount of money is left to record songs for the second album. In some of the songs Udo Dahmen and Benjamin Hüllenkremer, both ex-members of LAKE, take part in the production process.
The year 1994 is a pretty defining one for the band as the debut album comes out, accompanied by more shows and by now the four-piece is nothing but a well-established live act. “Sacred Season“ with its rather dark artwork, which is inspired by Dream Theater’s “Images & Words“, one of the band members’ favorite album at the time, is a rare gem of German melodic rock. Tracks like “Change Your Heart“, “I Won’t Forget“ or “Childhunter“ easily still stand the test of time.
In-between the two albums, Sacred Season puts out an EP called “So Much“ as part of a charity project comprised of four tracks from the two albums, two of them unreleased back then.
The second album “No Man’s Land“ (1998) is a bit tough in the making as the band thinks the best songs have been used for the debut. Nevertheless, a few “leftovers“ are taken and refurbished as well as new material is written after the release of “Sacred Season“. The sound is slighty better or let’s say it’s more mature and finally even “Voices“ is on board. “Times were totally different back then because of the fact that, even though the studio, we worked in, took in new equipment back then, everything was still not digital like nowadays“, Meier explains. The artwork of “No Man’s Land“ is done by Oliver Wilking, brother of Willy.
By the way, both albums arouse a considerable amount of interest in Japan, too, spreading the word about the German band on the other side of the world but a stock market crash at the time and last but not least modern rock already lurking around the corner end the dream of making Sacred Season big in a commercial way by giving them a record deal. “We always knew about being quite late with our sound“, the band members admit. „A song like ‘Voices‘ would have worked on radio end of the eighties, for sure.“
In the meantime, the band is a regular guest on many local festivals and stages throughout the country, establishing a great reputation as a fine live act playing their AOR and melodic rock sound. And they do so when basically no one else does. Times indeed are rough for polished, keyboard-driven AOR and partly high-pitched vocals end of the Nineties…
There is no decision to end the band but soon after “No Man’s Land“, the members in Sacred Season happen to experience major changes in life. Marriages take place, kids are born, one or the other moves house and so on. But here and there a gig is played, even with many, many years of silence in-between. For example Kiel sees a phenomenal 25th anniversary gig in 2011, ending quite a long kind of hiatus, or five years later a sold-out show rocked the city of Bordesholm, Germany, all of them in front of an ever loyal fan-base to many of whom the band has been a good companion for decades.
“New music“ of Sacred Season is added to “No Man’s Land“ as a bonus, too. The demo tracks “My Reality“ and “Nothing Will Ever Divide Us“ were written in 2004 and 2017 respectively and recorded in 2017. “It is a pleasure to at least add some bonus“, Schultz proudly says. The songs might have a different sound in terms of production but definitely carry the same spirit that made Sacred Season what they are, the melodic rock band from Raisdorf near Kiel, a bunch of friends that played the very first Wacken Open Air…
Here’s a secret: One brand new song is about to be recorded in December 2024 and who knows what the future holds…
The rest is history and apart from the magic of the music, this band is about friendship. “We play music together for a long time but most important is the fact that we are friends for life“, says Schultz. The legacy lives on and here we are seeing these two German melodic gems resurface as part of the Pride & Joy Classixx series…That’s where they belong! Melodies forever!
Martin Stark, Nordhastedt (December 2024)
Track list:
1. I Won’t Forget
2. Only for You
3. Kawa – Taking The Last Breath
4. Wings Of Love
5. Loose My Pride
6. The Chance
7. Change Your Heart
8. Take Away The Pain
9. Tomorrow
10. Take Me Home
11. Child Hunter
12. I´ve Been In Love Before
