SACRIFICE: “VOLUME SIX”

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of a new album by the ’80s-era Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice, their first one in 16 years and with their original lineup intact. It will be released on February 21st by Cursed Blessings Records.)

Thrash is a metal subgenre perhaps most shackled to a golden era that reached its peak in 1990 with albums like Seasons in the Abyss and Rust in Peace. Death metal gained prominence and bands either doubled down and got heavier to keep up or veered off to follow the ’90s alternative sound. The Canadian thrash band Sacrifice has been kicking it since the ’80s but never caught on to gain the cult status of a band like Voivod. They have however changed with the times on for their 6th album, which finds them sharing sonic ground with bands like Power Trip, who blended hardcore sounds with the thrash of the past.

If you were to listen back to the 1986 album Torment in Fire, while it captures the energy of that time, the guitar tones are a little dated, so the current production value plays to their benefit and breathes new life into what they do. This band is not jumping on a bandwagon to be relevant, but staying true to what they do while packing a suitable song punch, rather than digging up their pedal board from the ’80s to cash in on nostalgia for 1986.

photo by Kelly Clark Fotography

This carries over into their songwriting, which is also forward-thinking. You can hear passages not unlike modern hardcore bands. “Underneath Millennia” is one of the strongest songs as it’s darker and has more groove. There is also more melody in the guitars, though vocals remain at a consistent bark. “Your Hunger For War” is more Testament-like in the way it gallops; this breakneck is endearing.

This album benefits from a great mix. If it had come out in 1990 this would be an entirely different conversation. Thrash always had great apocalyptic themes which are even more timely now, making a song like “Incoming Mass Extinction” more appealing. There is a taut gallop to “Explode” that reminds me of Nuclear Assault.

“Black Hashish” is a wandering yet dynamic instrumental, and the melodic guitar passages prove they are capable of more than just coming at you head-first. The hooky riffs keep you engaged. “We Will Not Survive” finds them giving in to the need for speed, as they go for the throat. What they do not do that Nuclear Assault did was give you half-time mosh grooves. They do lock into solid gallops that you can headbang to.

There is a more hardcore energy to the last song, “Trapped In A World,” which is effective.

Fans of thrash metal should not overlook this album. It achieves a balance of staying true to a more traditional definition of the genre without being limited to, and just trying to resurrect, the past. The much heralded “Big Four” of thrash have largely dulled their dangerous edges over the years, to be thought of in the same light as classic rock bands, so an album like this one recaptures the excitement the classic chugs and gallops once invoked. If you want to recapture that magic, give this album a listen.

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