Heavy metal rockers Sacred Blood give fans what they want

Sacred Blood is Wolf Noble on lead guitar, Rippy Williams on drums, Brent Noble on rhythm guitar and Nate Ashley on lead vocals (not pictured). [photo by Brian Leddy]

By Karen Francis
Staff writer

GALLUP — With numerous shows in the coming months, one of the hardest-working bands in Gallup is the heavy metal group Sacred Blood.

Playing a heavy sound one member describes as “slamming groove,” Sacred Blood is Brent Noble on rhythm guitar, Rippy Williams on drums, Wolf Noble on lead guitar and Nate Ashley on lead vocals and bass. The band has been around for years, but the current line-up has been in existence since January 2007.

After former band members Don, Ryan and Eric left the local area for college, work and to join the Army, Rippy thought that the band was on hiatus. However, he was surprised when he met brothers Brent and Wolf and they already knew how to play several Sacred Blood songs. He decided to keep the band going and invited them and Nate to join the band.

“I never played with them before and we had one practice and they had the songs down,” Rippy said.

Brent said he used to see the band playing at local metal shows and wondered what it would be like to perform on-stage.

“I really liked the way they sound and I was interested in music. I used to go to shows a lot,” he said. “I was really psyched because I’d never been in a band playing all these shows, which was really cool.”

Wolf, who had learned about music from playing in his school band, wanted to join because “I had some riffs in my head that I wanted to play. I wanted to be in a band to try something new.”

For Rippy, playing music is something he will be doing his entire life.

“Man, I’m going to be doing this when I’m 50, watch,” he said. “I’ve been jamming in bands since I was 15, and 15 years later I’m still going. And I’m still going to keep going.”

The band got its name because all the former and current band members are related in some way, Rippy said.
“We as Navajos have a sacred blood that runs through us. Even more sacred than that is we’re all related. So we thought it’s a perfect name,” he said.

Rippy compares the band’s sound to 80s metal bands.
“We wanted to be a death metal band, but we decided we don’t want a label like that. We want to be just metal,” he said.

Some influences the band members list include Sepultura, Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse and Deicide — their favorite band whom they actually got to open for in Farmington in November 2007.

Brent’s and Wolf’s favorite show though was Sacred Blood’s first appearance in Page.

“The crowd was really crazy,” Brent said. “Everyone was doing a really bad mosh pit. It was really crazy.”

The band has played all over the Southwest including shows at Denver, Phoenix, California and mini-tours in Texas. Rippy said that the band gets most of its shows through the social networking Web site Myspace.

Because of the band’s networking and fans, Sacred Blood will be playing a metal bash in Bylas, Ariz., and a five-day tour in Texas where it will play a metal fest with hundreds of other bands.

Rippy said that Sacred Blood has built a good fan base in Las Cruces and has played for audiences of 300 people and more there. However, the band loves to play in Gallup.

“I love playing in Gallup. It’s always pretty crazy” Rippy said adding that many of the audience for Sacred Blood are former classmates of band members.

When playing, Rippy said he is usually surprised to see people he knows in the mosh pits and singing along to the band’s songs.

“Sometimes even I don’t know the lyrics and there they are singing along,” he said.

Fans know the lyrics to “Dying In My Sleep” — the band’s most popular song — because it is played on local rock radio station 106.1. The song was inspired by a band trip to Juarez , but had no title until another band trip where the driver fell asleep at the wheel.

“That was a close call, man,” Rippy said.

Playing other songs from its repertoire of 23 original songs causes the audience to shout out the lyrics at times.

When Sacred Blood plays “My Princess” the lead singer invites all the female fans onstage to dance along, which they do enthusiastically.

“It’s really cool. People are there to support you and people like you,” Brent said about the audience. “I’m there to have fun and just jam out, hang out with my band mates.”

Shows coming up for Sacred Blood include Dilkon Chapter on April 19, the second annual Spring MetalFest in Farmington on April 26, Gallup Performing Arts Center on April 30, Las Cruces on May 5, Zuni on May 10 and GPAC on May 17 for Rippy’s and Brent’s birthday.

Information: http://www.myspace.com/sacredblood.