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Sacrifice > Crest of Black > Reviews
Sacrifice - Crest of Black

Crest of Black - 70%

Spatupon, June 15th, 2020
Written based on this version: 2010, CD, Bang the Head Records (Limited edition)

Sacrifice is an iconic Japanese thrash/death metal band. Unlike other bands like Fastkill and 666, Sacrifice take a much more orthodox and old-school approach towards song-writing and musical presentation. Listening to this record reminded me heavily of the early Hellhammer demos. At some points you could easily mistake this band from Venom or some other underground NWOBHM. The first song on this album is weirdly evocative of Venom's "Welcome to Hell".

Sacrifice seem to be mainly inspired by the European style of thrash metal. The music is more focused on groove, attitude and foreboding rhythms rather than the frantic speed of bay-area or Teutonic thrash metal. This whole release is peppered with some pretty impressive nods towards the masters of the first wave of Black metal. The pace of the songs is pretty varied and keeps you entertained for the entire duration of the release. The long intro between some songs kind of irked because I found such intros to be disruptive to the overall flow of the album.

Another problem which this album suffers from is the cookie-cutter nature of most of its song. After listening to the whole album a different bunch of times, I remained kind of perplexed to realise how certain songs seem to weave into each other so seamlessly and other times they feel completely out of place. What this full-length doesn't fall short of, however, is the amount of cool solos and shredding section present throughout most songs on the album. The stand out solo, in my humble opinion, is the lead solo on the second song entitled "Tank".

My experience with the presence of bass guitar on the majority of underground extreme metal bands from Japan that I've listened to, has left me yearning to find a release with a respectable amount of bass-guitar work. "Crest of Black" definitely delivers strongly when it comes to this aspect. The bass has a very thick and pounding sound which blends seamlessly with the guitar riffs. The vocalist reminds me a lot of Celtic Frost's Tom G. Warrior but with an even dirtier sounding vocals. Most of the riffs are mid-paced chugging chord progressions, however, there are some instances where other guitar-playing elements are used, for example the song "Illusory Scene" which depicts a whole different facet of this band and frankly showcases an interesting amalgamation of ideas.

Sacrifice's "Crest of Black" is quite a decent full-length album which showcases an often-overlooked Japanese underground metal scene. Anyone who enjoys early NWOBHM releases from the early to mid eighties and enjoys a more mid-paced brand of thrash metal, will definitely get hooked on this album.

Crest of Thrash That Nearly Rose Above Ground - 68%

bayern, November 9th, 2017

This is pretty much the only band from the 80’s Japanese batch who never got tempted by the weirdness and eccentricity emitted by their compatriots and colleagues, and remained faithful to a trite and tested formula that kept them afloat, but never got them any recognition, maybe some in their homeland.

The band’s style as presented on the album reviewed here is pretty conventional, by-the-book retro thrash which is built on heavy pounding formulas, a rough, but listenable combination of Venom, the Germans Backwater and Carnivore. The weak link would be the vocals which are not very rehearsed, dry hardcore semi-recitals that even come with an annoying synthesized blend at times. The album opens with the hypnotic monotonous “Friday Nightmare” which is vintage early Venom, but “Tank” prefers the faster-paced ways of execution, and things start looking vivid and brisk all of a sudden despite the abrasive guitar sound. Back to early Venom territory with another one-dimensional stomper which is “Lucifer Smiles”, but this proposition is livelier and even has a couple of curious screamy lead additions.

Beautiful stuff on “Illusory Scene”, a less than 2-min lyrical respite, before “Redrum” restores the bouncy mid-tempo fun the abrasive flair getting bigger bordering on proto-industrial, the guys trying to beat Ministry at their early game, but “Destroy” changes the sterile course with speedy headbanging rhythms, a nice lively deviation which precedes the nearly 7-min repetitive dirger “Witch Hunt” which strangely reminds of the Canadians Piledriver’s hymn of the same title released two years ago; a kind of a mood spoiler the situation only marginally improved by the more dynamic “Black Night”. The final “Warfare” is a revelation, though, an energetic blitzkrieg thrasher sustaining the fast pace for over 6-min.

No eccentricity, no bizarre musical decisions, this is pretty much the most orthodox recording from the Japanese underground of the 80’s, right as rain old school metal that had its most logical follow-up on the sophomore three years later which also saw the guys adding more proficient riffage, with more frequent speedy “excursions”. “Tears” was another decent showing the band having partially adapted to the modern trends, but having preserved a few vigorous thrashing numbers to keep the equilibrium, a cool blend of the two schools which some may find their finest hour. Well, I will stick with this crest here whenever I feel like descending into the rawer, more pristine side of the metal circuit, shaking the dust and the rust off its lesser known, more abrasive, crustier representatives.