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SACRIFIZER
Le Diamant de Lucifer

Osmose Productions (2022)
Rating: 8/10

Not to be confused with the German speed metal act of the same name, this French Sacrifizer offers far more vim and spice in its aggressive stance.

I purchased the cassette of the band’s 2019 debut EP, La mort triomphante, and was impressed to say the least, so I’m buoyed by the return of messrs. Sexumer (vocals and keyboards), NightReaper (guitar), SteelGrinder (guitar), Slaughterwytch (bass) and Lethal (drums).

As you would expect from their names, this ten-track affair is one hell of a vicious onslaught from beginning to end, with no holds barred satanic speed metal delivered as snappy bouts.

‘Ascent To The Black Throne’ kicks the album off and everything fills poisonous and hostile, whether in the form of the shrill vocal cries, the bludgeoning percussion and bass or the rancid, two-pronged axe assaults. There’s a stench of 80s Teutonic thrash – y’know, that venomous, rattling toxic speed which has also been channelled over the last decade or so by the likes of Vulture and Hellripper. This is certainly not original, but it scalps you in truly horrifying fashion even though you know what is coming.

Cherry-pick anything from this slab and you’ll be spiked to your very core. My personal favourites are ‘Ripped Under The Grave’ – although it hardly deviates from the path coughed by ‘Ascent To The Black Throne’ – and the joyous tumult of ‘Leather Agents’. The latter is a wonder expression of hyper speed. I also found myself foaming at the rollicking ‘Possessor’, which harbours a blackened dissonance in its chords.

As I say, Sacrifizer doesn’t rely on any real variation to get its malicious messages across. This is all speed, rawness and blasphemy chipped into segments which they give song titles to. But while I may sound as harsh as Sexumer’s vocal whips, I’m actually complimenting this band of lunatics and their maniacal brand of steamroller thrash. Prepare to be flattened.

Neil Arnold

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