Human Sacrifice

Review of disc 1 of KMG's double disc release Human Sacrifice/Once Dead.

The debut album from Christian thrash metal legends Vengeance Rising is an important one! What we have here might be a somewhat "late to the party" thrash release, but it is one of the earliest, if not the earliest (maybe only rivaled by Heaven's Force) Christian extreme metal albums. In 1988 most would associate Christian metal with heavy/glam band Stryper, and the scene hadn't evolved much since the yellow and black attack had arrived. But Vengeance Rising took it in an all new and much more brutal direction, and the following years saw a boom of Christian extreme metal bands like Tourniquet, Mortification and Believer, all very much inspired by this band.

Vengeance Rising is an all American band.... but they sound very German. The Teutonic thrash scene seems to have had a rather large impact on VR's debut album "Human Sacrifice". There is a lot of mid-80's Kreator and Sodom vibe to it. The thrash is raw and rather simple and has a bit of a death metal feel here and there. Roger Martinez vocal is a high pitched, yet hoarse growl very much like Millo from Kreator. They mostly stay on the same musical path throughout the album, yet Mulligan Stew has a blues rock basis and has solo upon solo in the back of the mix. Fill This Place with Blood also has a bluesy solo in the intro, and I Love Hating Evil has a cheesy Bon Jovi-ish intro before it crashes into all thrash territory. Ascension is one of the better thrash metal instrumental pieces out there. 5 minutes of tons of shredding, and even though the song might lack the momentums of Metallica's instrumental pieces, it still doesn't become boring, and feels like it's over in a heartbeat - Very well done! And then there are 3 super short songs that has more in common with early Napalm Death more than anything.

The mix is good and even the bass is audible. It usually follows the guitar riffs. The drums are a bit too simple, but they do what they are suppose to - keep a punishing thrash beat! The lyrical content is very much a straight up in your face Christian message, turn-or-burn type stuff very typical for its time!

Now even though this release really pushed a lot of new extreme Christian metal in the foreground, and as classic as it may be, I still don't think it holds up to a lot of the other bands that came after it. Don't get me wrong, it's still really good, but not really the place to start if you want to venture into Christian extreme metal! However "Human Sacrifice" delivers some great thrash fun and has a few classic songs - Burn and White Throne - and might be Vengeance Risings finest hour.

This is Vengeance Rising's debut album which was originally released in 1988 during a time when the only other options for Christians who enjoyed Metal music were bands like Stryper and Barren Cross who were rather tame compared to alot of secular metal bands at the time.

Most of this album is brutal thrash in vein of bands such as Dark Angel, Slayer, and Mantas-era Death. What set this band apart from thrash bands like Slayer and Metallica were Roger Martinez's vocal style which was on the fringe of death metal styled vocals.

Their are a few classic rock and blues influences as evidenced on the song Mulligan Stew and the guitar intro to Fill This Place with Blood. My favortie tracks are the title track, Fatal Delay, and Beheaded. Beheaded is played at break neck speed and ends with a horrific scream that lasts nearly 10 seconds and in my opinion ends the album perfectly.

The only downside is that some of the drumming is a bit sloppy and off timed but certainly not enough to constitute a bad album by any means. Also the lead guitar work on here is exceptional and could easily hold up against the best of secular metal bands of the time.

Get this if you like late 80's bay area thrash with semi-death metal vocals and some rock and blues thrown in here and there.

Many Christian metal fans consider Vengeance Rising’s debut the first and one of the greatest Christian thrash albums ever released I agree with the first but certainly don’t agree with the second statement. Human Sacrifice really would be extremely hard to tell that it was a Christian release if you didn’t read the lyrics because it has a violent atmosphere and a song structure that’s quite chaotic for Christian metal of that time. The album itself mixes elements of speed, death, classic metal/hard rock to form a unique type of thrash metal.

Most songs on Human Sacrifice are fast-tempo with mid-tempo parts throughout even some slow-tempo parts. The two guitarist’s leads are quite good so are the riffs which are mainly fast picked single note riffing, solos are frequent and are mainly shredded. The vocals are evil sounding ranging from the typical thrash shouting/screaming and a very death metal type growling rasp. The drumming is standard for the time. The bass is completely inaudible except for a few solos.

Human Sacrifice is plagued with some major weaknesses. Three songs on Human Sacrifice are completely pointless Receive Him, Salvation, and He Is God all being under a minute and having no purpose besides maybe filling some space. The production is in the typical 80’s thrash style albeit rawer and more of a demo quality. Most of the songs are good but there is just enough filler to bring the overall effect of this album down. Finally if Vengeance Rising would have taken the three above mentioned songs off and worked some more on the entertainment value this album probably would have been a classic.

Overall Human Sacrifice is a solid release albeit very overrated. Best songs are Human Sacrifice, I Love Hating Evil, White Throne, and From The Dead. I recommend this album to fans of 80’s thrash that can overlook the message of Vengeance Rising and just listen to the music itself.

-5 points production could have been much better
-10 points three pointless songs
-5 points too many filler songs

Sometimes I act too cautiously. Yes, because the idea of listening to a Christian band at first didn’t convince me a lot and I beg sorry to anyone into this religion, but I’m not a part of it. It was a bit stupid, I know but I tried to make up my mind and finally I decided to listen to it, with no prejudices, of course. The surprise was quite pleasant: if there weren’t the lyrics to show you the content, you wouldn’t imagine that this is Christian metal, because it’s quite brutal.

Starting from the title track, we have no time to relax thanks to several fast parts and nasty vocals with an eye to death metal. The structures are very simple and they flow perfectly in their brutality. There are lots of solos too, while the following “Burn” is a good blend of mid paced riffs and sudden starts with more melodic solos. The production is the standard thrash metal one with crispy and metallic sounds that stench of 80s, so great to me.

As you can hear, the band is not particularly technical if we talk about the song structures but it’s always able to show you direct riffs united to mid paced, hard rock style tempo. The combination of pure thrash metal fast patterns and these hard rock styles, more calm, is good to change a bit the various atmospheres in the songs, while the solos are the constant charge of melody inside the songs. We can have lots of them with a great technique and speed.

“Receive Him” is pretty forgettable, with the title screamed for three seconds and the drum rolls; while the melodic ballad “I Love Hating Evil” is way better structured, passing through arpeggios and up tempo. Finally, the riffage is more incisive here and less melodic, like also the following “Fatal Delay”. Here is where the band is really compact and is able to create some earth breaking songs. Another good song can be “White Throne” for the guitars solos at beginning and the following restarts. This structure reminded me a lot the one of “Evil Dead” by Death.

Going on listening to the tracks you realize that the impact is growing and “From The Dead” is another sign of it, through galloping riffs and fast drums rolls. There is also a good mix of mid paced parts with great drum passages in the instrumental “Ascension”. It features an excellent blend of furious rhythmic riffs and hyper fast tapping solos. “He is God” is punkish, fast and short; made for the pure impact while the sludgy riffs come back in the following, fast “Fill This Planet With Blood”. The very last song, “Beheaded” is the last violent attack through up tempo and great riffs.

All in all, this is a good album with few very good songs. It’s not a so big surprise to me because some parts are not astonishing and maybe they needed some catchy approaches to be more recognizable in their brutality. The band is compact and you can hear that but it’s not enough to play great music. Well, it will please the thrashers in general.

Vengeance Rising was one brutal metal band. They had more in common with the secular death scene than any of their Christian peers. Human Sacrifice, their debut, is a fantastic, brutal, thrash/death accomplishment. Roger Martinez has an unbelievably sick and twisted death voice sounding as if he was full of anger and being tortured at the same time. Man, I usually can’t stand death vocals, but this guy’s vocals have great tone and inflection. When Roger groans/growls “I Love Haating EEEvilLLL” he sends shivers up
the ol’ spine.

Human Sacrifice has a really unique production, every instrument has just enough separation and clarity to sort the chaotic metal here. This is metal you would be proud to play for your troo black/death friends. This Cd is like the Christian Morbid Angel but SICKER. What I like about Human Sacrifice the most is the old-school thrash traditions it has. Screaming, Ripping, Shredding guitars. Excellent vocals. Eighties- thrash sensibilitys.I’m not hyping this, because I’m Christian.(though the lyrics are doctrinally dead on). I’m all over this because of the music.

Now that I think about it, if you’re the average, secular or church of satan-sympathetic, agonistic, atheist metal fan, the lyrics contained herein might just PISS YOU OFF. In Vengeance Rising’s world there is no gray, only black or white. Good or Evil, Salvation or Damnation. It might make you contemplate “What if there really is a hell? Why would a loving God send his children there for shunning him?” Check out the end of the song “Beheaded” and that horrific scream, as if he is being tortured in the pits of everlasting hell. Disturbing.

Stand Out songs: Human Sacrifice, Burn, I Love Hating Evil, White Throne, From the Dead, Ascension, Beheaded.