(Cursed Blessing / High Roller)
Rating: 9.0
Man, let’s give a moment of loud to respect Canuck thrashers Sacrifice, still with the OG lineup, still releasing incredible albums like this, the band taking their time with things, yes—six albums since 1986—but it’s worth it.
Opener “Comatose” is outrageous for a bunch of guys with more salt than pepper, biting hard like Kreator, thrashing furious, memorable, tight and proficient. “Antidote Of Poison” follows up with a neck-cracking rhythm and smart songwriting and can we talk about the riffs? We’re on song two here and there’s already a feast of thrash riffs for the ages.
Not sure how else to say this, but the opening of “Underneath Millennia” excites me, and “Your Hunger For War” is a modern thrash insta-classic, again, something Kreator could hang their hat on no problem. “Incoming Mass Extinction” takes a mere two minutes to drop its hardcore-influenced thrash with power.
We also get two instrumentals: the awesome, solo-heavy “Lunar Eclipse” and the lumbering “Black Hashish”, as well as a cover of ’80s Toronto hardcore band Direct Action’s “Trapped In A World” (fun fact: this features guest vocals from Brian Taylor, who was the head honcho of the Diabolic Force label back in the day).
Wrap it all up in great cover art courtesy of Propagandhi’s Todd Kowalski and I’m sitting here wondering what could possibly be better than this in 2025. The band put out their last album—the excellent The Ones I Condemn—in 2009, and although the waits are agonizing, if the results are this good, that’s a price I’m happy to pay.
Release date: January 24th, 2025
Source: bravewords.com
