SATO – Leather Warriors Anthology 82/86

For sure there are more than 30 bands whose name was inspired by Judas Priest and more specifically from a song title, with Running Wild and Exciter coming first to mind. Yes, there was a time when fanboyism reigned and those who put up a poster in their room when they decided to grab a guitar or sit behind the drum kit had heavy metal as a way of living and its heroes were their gods. But how many bands that were inspired by an Ozzy song come to mind? Rumours say that nobody remembers a band called “Beheaded Pigeon”, neither the name Sharon rings a bell… But behold, SATO have taken their name from the song S.A.T.O. that was in the second Ozzy album, Diary of A Madman (1981) and its initials according to Sharon Osbourne, go by Sharon Arden, Thelma Osbourne! Arden is Sharon’s original surname and Thelma was Ozzy’s first wife (the song was initially called “Strange Voyage”, but according to Bob Daisley, who wrote the lyrics, Sharon changed it and fired Daisley, as also drummer Lee Kerslake from the band. The inspiration for Daisley’s introspective lyrics came from a letter that the Buddhist monk Nichiren Daishonin wrote in 1261. The letter was entitled “A Ship to Cross the Sea of Suffering.” Of course there are similarities with Ozzy’s band, especially in the guitarwork that often brings to mind the late Randy Rhoads. Despite the fact that SATO’s idols were Iron Maiden (especially for the singer Dean Jeffries), they had nothing to do with them musically. They formed in 1982 and recorded the songs we can hear in Leather Warriors with this line-up: Terry Lee (guitars), Mike Starr (bass), Dave Jensen (drums), Ken Kramer (guitars) and Dean Jeffries (vocals). SATO survived only 4 years without releasing any complete studio record, only a demo somewhere in between 1983-1985. Despite being young, their influences were filtered and the outcome was 100% American sound with inputs from outside the Seattle scene that was already boiling and giving birth to big bands. Riot, early Queensryche, Lizzy Borden and also Scorpions and U.F.O. elements are completing the puzzle of influences, while their sound was flirting with the radio friendly version, since we can listen to parts that sound like Dokken, Twisted Sister and early Van Halen. ‘Leather Warriors’, ‘Wheels Burn’, and the best of all ‘Born with Fire’ stand out. Lost Realm unearthed and offers to us once more a diamond of the North Western American scene, which even in that way finds its way to a wider audience in a well made CD + DVD case limited in 500 copies. In total 10 songs that have been taken from the original master tapes and are digitally remastered. The songs that this compilation includes are from different recordings from the period 1982-1986. The DVD includes unreleased material from the last SATO show, as also the famous show at Northwest Metalfest (along with Koda Khan, Metal Church, Overlord, etc.). It comes with a 20-page booklet that includes the lyrics, rare photos, paper clips, gig posters and an interview-biography with the singer Dean Jeffries. For the trivia fans, one member of SATO, the bassist Mike Starr, later on became one of the founders of the grunge superstars Alice In Chains.