Sacrifice - The Ones I Condemn
Marquee Records
Thrash Metal
10 songs (40:46)
Release year: 2009
Sacrifice
Reviewed by Thomas
Album of the year

While last year saw the long awaited follow-up to St. Anger, Death Magnetic by Metallica, 2009 has brought us the widely acclaimed Endgame, the pretty neat Hordes of Chaos and the slightly sub-par, in my opinion at least, World Painted Blood, and a couple of other decent to great releases from older thrash bands that would like a say in the ongoing thrash wave. It is not until The Ones I Condemn however that I am properly convinced that the heroes of old haven’t completely lost their way as the lesser known Canadian, face-stomping Sacrifice is back with what might very well be the thrash album of the year if not the best in several years. Musically speaking they are the same as before, dishing up thrash from different eras and from different continents as well as mixing in a healthy touch of both death and a hint of doom metal. So sixteen whole years after the break-up, Sacrifice is back, maybe better than ever, with an album I doubt will be bettered by any other thrash act this year.

Playing a blend of mainly Exodus and Kreator as well as adding their own load of creativity, Sacrifice jumps out to get you with the slightly modern Exodus-like intro We Will Prevail. Riff-heavy and melodic it leads the way into the ferocious, flesh-tearing and pure thrashing mad title-track. Urbinati sounds excellent, maybe better than ever, the riffs and drumming is fast and delightfully furious and the guitar-solos are as blazing as ever. Urbinati sounds slightly raspier, and more death-y here. During some of his harsher breaks and especially on The Great Wall that actually reminds me of Sound of Perseverance-era Death he doesn’t sound too different from Chuck himself which adds another dimension of aggression to this. Added to the modern, crushing guitars, blasting drums, and solid bass-rumbling, Sacrifice have managed to create a wall of sound that’ll crash down on the non-believers. Tetragrammaton for instance, leaves a giant crater with giant, squandering, gut-wrenching doom-y riffs and rhythms before speeding things up a couple of notches and finish you off with face-shredding intensity.

Being able to write songs that’ll stick in your head, beat you to death, and making you scream along like a maniac is what thrash metal is about these days. Sacrifice fronts this in the best possible way. Fuck renewal when it’s written as deliberately, performed as brilliantly, and produced as greatly as this is. I was caught completely off guard with this, and after hearing a certain amounts of failing thrash revivalist bands this year, I can only say that it was a nice surprise. When the climaxing Hiroshima grabs you like a predator grabs a solid slab of meat and rips you to pieces, chews you up and never spit you out, the circle is complete.

The more I write about this, the more excited I get, and for a thrash-enthusiast like me to experience a beating like this in 2009, is just nothing short of awesome. This band is second to none right now, and only next year will show if Heathen and possibly Onslaught will even start to compete with this, which might turn into a future classic when thinking of the time it was released. This is a pure old-school thrash-fest from start to finish, and is a must-have for thrash-heads and metal-fans in general. Great stuff, highly recommended.

Killing Songs :
ALL SLAY
Thomas quoted 94 / 100
Other albums by Sacrifice that we have reviewed:
Sacrifice - Forward to Termination reviewed by Thomas and quoted 94 / 100
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