SACRIFICE – Volume Six

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7.5

• Bands:
  SACRIFICE
• Duration: 00:40:59
• Available from: 01/24/2025
• Label:

• High Roller Records

Streaming not yet available

Revival, revival, revival. Almost everyone, among the so-called 'old glories', realized that it was enough to get back on track and give a decent shape to their intentions, to earn a slice of attention from the metal public.
The tendency to rediscover with incurable nostalgia realities that have been frozen for some time and considered 'things of the past' has led the protagonists of more or less important records to come back to life, trying to stop the time that is fleeting and bring themselves back, all boldly, to relive the emotions from a few years ago. We don't have a precise account of how many – more or less well-known – thrash metal dioscuri have reconnected after years of inactivity, certainly the group of those who have gotten back on track is currently very long.
The Canadians Sacrifice also try again, standard bearers of the most extremist fringe of thrash metal, that of other 'minor' groups who have successfully returned to the scene such as Demolition Hammer and Morbid Saint, or the much better known Slayer and Dark Angel. People who have always approached thrash as a genre of destruction and pulverization of a hypothetical enemy, sometimes drawing on solutions so hysterical and derailing as to come close to what would become the first death metal.
From '86 to '93, starting from the first album “Torment In Fire” up to the fourth “Apocalypse Inside”, the Canadians made little mistakes if not nothing, despite not obtaining large-scale public approval. In short, no great leap in popularity and, as for the majority of those who frequented that type of sound at the time, the lack of commercial take-off was followed by dissolution. In fact, the four North Americans would be fully active again in 2006, but after the fifth album “The Ones I Condemn” they did not ride the flame for thrash metal like some of their colleagues.
We therefore arrive at this “Volume Six” (a title with zero imagination, let's face it) not knowing exactly what to expect, given the long silence that breaks through. Cleverly, today's Sacrifice – with all members of the original line-up still in the saddle – do exactly what you would expect of them, no more, no less. We therefore start again from the harsh, derailing and rigorous invectives of “The Ones I Condemn” of 2009, to set up a delightful tracklist, if you care about thrash metal of impetus and pride, well played, sharp and sadistically biting.
Sacrifice by their nature are not a team of ingenuity and unsettling intuitions, but they do very well what few can do: play hard and mean with dynamism, instinct for knockout blows, methodical care for the (few) melodies and vibrant solos. “Volume Six” quickly reveals itself to be a concentrate of pure thrash metal, without suffixes or prefixes of any kind to alter its pure and proud nature.
The only sign that we are in 2025 and not in 1986 is a roaring and faithful production in restoring the band's surgical animosity. Music from which the experience of true veterans shines through, those who know these sounds by heart and don't fool them on the fundamentals of the genre. And they don't screw you. You can't tell him anything. You can't dispute them.
The riffing of Rob Urbinati and Joe Rico remains the epicenter of assault songs, square and massive, confidently supported by a relentless rhythm section and the acid vocality of Urbinati himself to create a welcome climate of revolt. We advance with our heads down, with careful tempo changes and slightly more thoughtful breaks, putting together a collection of songs which, given the above premises, stands out more for its compactness than its variety. And that's fine.
There are, in any case, faint variations here and there, just enough to keep the enthusiasm from fading and to highlight some remnants of dramatic tension. On this side, the darker and more iridescent “Black Hashish” is appreciated, an instrumental with arpeggios with an almost gothic flavour, blending with slightly smoother rhythms and a general restless and almost persuasive atmosphere.
Remaining on more direct and sanguine material, “Antidote Of Poison” (preview of the album released in mid-December), “Missile” and “We Will Not Survive” stand out for their ferocity and some more insightful ideas than average. How can we appreciate “Trapped In A World” at the end, for its hardcore/punk street tone, where we have a nice duet between Urbinati and Brian Taylor, Canadian punk singer and producer of the first three Sacrifice records.
Also thanks to its limited duration and the absence of interlocutory tracks, “Volume Six” perfectly fulfills its task, which is essentially to detach heads from necks with thrash metal blows. For music that has 'higher' and nobler objectives, one must necessarily turn elsewhere. We wouldn't have dared to ask Sacrifice for anything different…