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Sweet Savage

Irish heavy metal band

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ1635839
Source-derived summary

Sweet Savage are a heavy metal band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, formed in 1979. Future Dio & Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell and Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride were members of the band. Since forming in 1979, Sweet Savage have released four studio albums, three singles and one demo.

Considered one of the pioneers of the new wave of British heavy metal movement alongside acts such as Iron Maiden, Saxon, Diamond Head, and Def Leppard, due to a handful of songs, most notably, played and recorded live on the BBC Radio One - The Friday Rock Show. The band however, only released two singles in their first incarnation, failed to record a single album and thus success eluded them, leading to a hiatus by 1983.

The band reconvened in 1984 with a different line-up, but did not last long. The band reformed for a second time in the 1990s, following Metallica's cover of their song "Killing Time" as a B-side for their "The Unforgiven" single, recording two albums, before going on hiatus for a third time. Sweet Savage then reformed in 2008, recording their third studio album, Regeneration, which was released in 2011. The band has remained active since reforming in 2008 and released their fourth album, Bang, with German record label earMUSIC in 2025.

History

Early days (1979–1983)

Sweet Savage began with a line-up of Trev Fleming and Vivian Campbell on guitars, David Bates on drums and Ray Haller on bass and vocals.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Sweet Savage” as irish heavy metal band. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979, 1983, 1984, 2008—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Sweet, Savage and Irish can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as irish heavy metal band. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1635839. The first chronological checks are 1979, 1983, 1984 and 2008.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sweet Savage”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sweet Savage primary sources, Sweet Savage archive and Sweet research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sweet Savage”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Sweet Savage” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.