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SACRIFICE
Volume Six

High Roller / Cursed Blessings (2025)
Rating: 7/10

With all members from the classic line-up assembled, Canadian thrash maniacs Sacrifice open their doors once again and invite you into the eye of their storm. Now, I have fond memories of Sacrifice because up until 1990 they released a trio of fine assaults. My battered copy of debut full-length Torment In Fire (1986) still sits tight within my record collection, so I’m somewhat protective of the Sacrifice legacy especially, and like so many other bands, when they reform and produce new material.

So many great 80s thrash acts have followed similar paths, Vio-lence, Mordred, Xentrix and Razor to name a few, but I always find myself going back to the classics they released. To an extent this latest Sacrifice album has a similar effect, although it certainly doesn’t underwhelm like so many other returning acts.

Volume Six is very much a band revelling in its roots so don’t expect any shocks or twists. Instead, be prepared to have your body thrashed ’til death. All members present – Rob Urbinati (vocals and guitar), Joe Rico (guitar), Scott Watts (bass) and Gus Pynn (drums) – still have that ferocious hunger which made Sacrifice so ravenous first time round. What you get here are a batch of songs that, and rather surprisingly, kind of continue from where standalone 2009 opus The Ones I Condemn left off. The reason I am surprised is simply because that opus emerged 16 years ago, but hey, it’s still the same tried and trusted line-up resulting in the expected formula.

Volume Six remains a riotous affair that takes its foot off the aggressive pedal. The likes of ‘Missile’ is Sacrifice in their purest, seething form, and ‘Antidote Of Poison’ sees the band take their foot off the gas ever so slightly while still managing to deliver the goods. Eleven songs tend to whizz by on first listen, but after several spins you begin to appreciate why you loved the Toronto-based band first time round.

As with previous Sacrifice releases there’s that harsh tone in every department, particularly in the vocals as Rob Urbinati sneers and spits his way through the scathing opener ‘Comatose’ which causes instant whiplash. There’s no point teaching old dogs new tricks when the original magical powers of speed are still there.

Although this is close to vintage Sacrifice it obviously doesn’t have the same impact as the earlier albums, and to an extent segments of this opus remind me of Exodus via the Rob Dukes years. Some of the songs are a tad generic and predictable, but then again I never expected Sacrifice to reinvent the wheel.

At their most inventive, however, the lads carve up the angular ‘Underneath Millenia’ and a rather odd six-minute instrumental entitled ‘Black Hashish’ which, although with intricacy, it just out stays its welcome. Even so, the band give us plenty of tracks where they revert to type, namely ‘Explode’ and the looser ‘Trapped In A World’ which exhibits a punky edge.

At times I compare this to last year’s Blood Feast outing Infinite Evolution, but with said record I heard a band unable to recapture the glory days, understandably so, but also not able to stand out in an ever-crowded latter day thrash scene. Sacrifice’s new platter is far more lethal – sharp riffs and driving percussion – but, and it’s a big but, I just don’t see me playing this album much after the dust has settled. It’s actually a rare thing for a classic thrash band to return with material that comes anywhere near their original vision, and Volume Six remains firmly in the shadow of its predecessors.

Neil Arnold

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