Sacrifice

‘Legendary’ is a term that’s been over-used for old bands that reform and release a new album recently. The same goes for the Canadian Sacrifice, that released a few very decent, but not too remarkable thrash records in the late eighties and early nineties. Sixteen years after their last album Apocalypse Inside, Sacrifice gives it another shot and let’s face it: The Ones I Condemn is a surprisingly fresh and good thrash record.

Because Rob Urbinati’s vocals sound a lot like Schmier’s and Tom Angelripper’s, I immediately thought of Destruction and Sodom when I first heard the vocals, but it becomes clear that Sacrifice is on the other side of the ocean. Their music has a greater number of riffs and a remarkably more exciting structure than those two teutonic thrashers. I wouldn’t hear those bands do a song like the amazing Tetragrammaton these days.

The band luckily chose a sound that fits today. That way, they don’t dwell on nostalgia, but just play a venomous and razor sharp sounding brand of thrash. They’re not reinventing the wheel, but let’s face it: the thrash audience doesn’t want to hear that anyway, right?
As said before, Sacrifice doesn’t restrict itself to nostalgia.

The Ones I Condemn is way too strong for that. And although the riffs are fairly standard thrash, almost every song has a certain unexpected twist, which keeps a hold of your attention. And that way, it could happen that you’re suddenly – I’m just naming something entirely hypothetical – writing a review, banging your head.

Recommendations are impossible to give, because the level of The Ones I Condemn is consistently high. But since I can’t do that as a reviewer... The Slayer-ish title track, the closing and slightly progressive Desolation Alive, which is decorated by pretty clean parts, the speed demon Hiroshima, the aforementioned Tetragrammaton and the brutal The Devil’s Martyr are nice tracks to start with.

On the latter track, Strapping Young Lad and Tenet guitarist Jed Simon and Slaughter vocalist Dave Hewson even appear, but the Canadiens are good enough by themselves to produce a great thrash record. The riffs and solos by Urbinati and Joe Rico are all over the place and should be a delight to any fan of tight, well played thrash.

As a bonus on the digipack, you’ll even get a live version of the ‘legendary classic’ Soldiers Of Misfortune, but honestly, The Ones I Condemn surpasses the old stuff of Sacrifice by far. Even if the band didn’t really appeal to you in the old days, it’s a good idea to check out this album.

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