Interview Bruce Swift, Sacred Warrior

Hello Bruce Swift, how are you doing? Iam well Heiko and happy to take part in this interview

Please tell us something about your hometown? I live in a suburb of Chicago Winfield IL, about 45 minutes west of the city.

How is the Heavy Metal scene in your area? The local metal scene is dried up in this area mostly cover bands doing classic rock.

Please tell us something about the band Nomad your first band, before Sacred Warrior? The band Nomad was a cover band,we did Ozzy, Maiden, Sabbath covers as well as many others prior to our conversion to Christianity.

Please tell us how you found the other guys that later formed SW? .
After our conversion to Christianity Ray Parra, Tony Valesquez and I agreed we would be a Christ centered metal band.

In 1988 the band released the first album; Rebellion. A revelation in that time, a great metal record! also the album: Master’s Command that was released in 1989. The thing that iam thinking about is; why this was never discovered by; Metal Blade, Music for Nations, Epic Rceords or SPV? just to name a few. Why a lot of bands just stayed in Intense Records or Pure Metal Records…? We signed a 5 year contract with Intense Records and were locked in at one point Capital Records reached out to us but told us our record company wanted to much and was not worth the gamble….

In the German and Dutch metal Mags like; Aardschok, RockHard and Breakout Magazine, the band got always really good and positive reviews. And you guys had always a fanbase in the underground metal scene. What do you remember about the ‘old’ times; 80’s and 90’s concerning Sacred Warrior, other white metal bands and metal in general?These were exciting times recording albums touring and proclaiming this incredible message of hope through Jesus Christ.

Can you explain us after all these years what you think is the meaning behind the White Metal bands/Scene? I will speak for SW as a white metal band that all have sinned and fallen short of Gods standard but through Christ’s death and resurrection there is redemption to any who would make christ their trust, this is our message.

Do you have something that happened during the Sacred Warrior years, something special happened that you just think about you want to share with us? We were nominated for a dove award for the song holy holy holy we would close each set with this song and to see hundreds of people crying out to God was very moving…

What was/is your goal with Sacred Warrior? To continue writing quality christ centered music

Did you guys ever play live in Europe? We played in Germany and soon after this we would take a 10 year break.

What are some of your alltime favorite metal bands..? Some of my favorite bands are Queensryche, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Stryper to name a few…

Any idea how to bring some new effort, power, energy and light in the Christian Metal scene…? By writing quality music along with quality lyrics.

In Europe a lot of metalheads lost attention to a lot of bands like; Sacred Warrior, Bloodgood, Whitecross, Saint, Leviticus and Jerusalem? why is there a lack of promotion and distribution of the new albums…. nowedays..? Sacred Warrior definitely needs promotion I think metal is thriving in Europe because there’s a great love for metal music there…?

What are the future plans for Sacred Warrior? Writing quality music that causes one to question their existence and consider Christ the creator of all things

Do you have a last word, or something that’s on your heart you want to share with us…? Thanks for thinking of us and giving this opportunity for an interview, blessings my friend……