Review by Dominik on May 28, 2025.

Some bands age like wine. Sacrifice? They age like radioactive waste—dangerously stable over centuries, and still very much capable of melting your face off. I can't review the Canadian thrash veteran's latest album VI without first lighting a candle (or perhaps a Molotov) for their 1987 release Forward To Termination. Not because VI desperately clings to the past, but because it embodies and somehow succeeded to bottle the very essence of the 1987 classic. It's not a throwback—it's a time loop. In some way, Sacrifice managed to resurrect the mid-80s thrash spirit without sounding like a nostalgia act or an old man yelling at a thrash riff.

Against all odds—and logic—they kept the original lineup together. And while their youthful recklessness may have dulled slightly (probably a side effect of still having spinal discs intact), what replaced it is a sense of direction that can only come from a band that's been doing this since your dad's hairline was still intact. Listening to VI in 2025 might not fool your brain, but your heart will swear it's 1987 all over again. Leather, spikes, and nuclear paranoia included.

Now, let's get the bad news out of the way first, like taking out the trash before a dinner party. "Underneath Millenia" is a mid-paced plodder that grooves more than it bites. Not offensively bad—it's just there and trudges along like it's carrying a hangover. Then there's "Lunar Eclipse," an instrumental so unnecessary it might have been added by accident. Both tracks wear the Sacrifice badge, but they emanate the scent of a band momentarily wondering what a nap feels like. These tracks aren't terrible, but they do reek faintly of creaky knees and creative arthritis.

However, when things really stick out like a nun at a death metal concert is with the arrival of "Black Hashish"—an oddball, a six-minute mood piece that flirts with Middle Eastern motifs, wailing female vocals towards the end, and repetitious riffing. Some might call it atmospheric. Others (read: me) might call it a case of midlife prog flirtation gone mildly sideways. Well, if you like your thrash served with a side of opium haze and progressive noodling, be my guest. Me, I didn't come to Sacrifice for subtle mysticism. I came to be sonically assaulted.

Thankfully, those detours are the exception. The rest of VI hits with the precision and fury you'd expect from a band that apparently made a pact with time itself. Rob Urbinati still sounds like he's spitting broken glass through clenched teeth. He has aged with dignity, without losing an iota of his snarling defiance that made him a cult icon in the first place. The rest of the band? Equally well-preserved. Gus Pynn's drumming hasn't lost an inch of speed or control, which is either a miracle or the result of dark rituals. Either way, I'm not asking.

"Comatose" opens the album and ironically does the opposite its title suggests. It punches hard, drives fast, and makes no apologies. This isn't a band trying to reinvent themselves—it's a band reaffirming their DNA. The riffwork is razor-sharp, the rhythm section well-oiled, and there's a sense of structure here that proves controlled aggression is still the Sacrifice modus operandi. No chaotic thrash soup. Just disciplined destruction.

Tracks like "Missile", "Explode", and "Incoming Mass Extinction" deliver what the song titles promise. Short, violent, and packed with enough soloing to please the fretboard fetishists. "Incoming Mass Extinction" in particular, despite its grim theme, has a surprising punk vibe to it, and not just because of the track's brevity. What may explain why Sacrifice opted for a cover version of the Canadian punk veterans Direct Actions' song "Trapped In A World", released in 1985, which closes the album like an afterthought. Sacrifice manages to thrash it up without sacrificing (pun firmly intended) its roots. Even a bitter, grumpy old man like me, who usually groans at cover songs like they're gluten-free pizza, had to nod in grim approval.

"Your Hunger for War" reminds me of "The Entity" from Forward To Termination—a slower, more deliberate, but just as threatening song. And then comes "We Will Not Survive", which pretty much tells you what you're in for and pre-closes on a pessimistic note. Lyrically and musically this song casts a bleak and hopelessness future as we continue digging our own graves. The song's aggression and relentless speed is hammering the message home, though it feels that we passed the point of no return already. It's pretty much the musical equivalent of a climate report. The mournful lead guitar line near the end isn't too subtle, but subtlety was never the point, was it?

In the end, VI may only be Sacrifice's sixth album in four decades, but it sounds like they've been cryonically preserved since 1987 and simply unthawed when the world needed them most. No frills, no sellout, just pure, unfiltered Sacrifice. They just kept doing their damn thing, and somehow, that still works.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10, because despite a few questionable detours, VI proves that staying true to yourself isn't boring—it's lethal when done right.

Review by Michael on December 15, 2024.

A couple of weeks ago I became super excited when I read the announcement that Canadian thrash legends Sacrifice are going to release a follow-up to their 2009 effort The Ones I Condemn which was a killer one. So the bars are set pretty high for their new album which is simply called Volume Six – let's see if it just isn't a lame duck in comparison to it.

Starting with some atmospheric gloomy guitar sounds, a furious riff inferno soon breaks out. The first track is titled 'Comatose' but here nothing is comatose indeed. Staccato-like riffs and a raging drum-pace are firing some really lethal thrash vibes out of the speakers and here and there you get reminded of good old Slayer whereby Sacrifice have always been a little bit more one-dimensional. When you can in some Slayer songs more variability, the Canadians use much simpler song structures with fewer riffs and guitar solos. They are Status Quo in the thrash metal scene so to speak.

What is clearly to state for Volume Six is that Sacrifice sound as fresh as ever – you couldn't guess that the guys already exist for about 40 years now and ever since in the same line-up when you hear them. Rob Urbinatis vocals are super crispy and powerful and the instruments are played with a lot of skill and great technique. This all sounds very modern and not like from some guys who are maybe about mid-50 or older (I couldn't find any information about their age, except for Gus Pynn on drums).

And what I also have to state is that the album needs several spins to unfold. There are a lot of more or less similar sounding songs because of the simple riffing that you start to appreciate when you heard the album for more than one time. I was a little bit disappointed when I heard it first because there is nothing really new on it. You have heard it already on their other albums in one or the other way.

But on the other hand, do you want Sacrifice to do anything else? Some more trendy stuff or whatever? I guess the disappointment and the protests would have been much stronger than doing what everybody is expecting of them.

Volume Six has become a good thrash album that everybody who loved the five previous ones will also like. Here and there are even some surprises such as a creeping song like 'Underneath Millenia' which is more or less unusual for them or the cover song 'Trapped In A World' by the Canadian hardcore band Direct Action (with guest vocals by Youth Youth Youth vocalist Brian Taylor who also produced Sacrifices' first three albums). Another remarkable song is 'Black Hashish', one of two instrumental tracks on the album, which has turned out to be a little bit more psychedelic – I get reminded of the guitars in "Seasons In The Abyss" a little bit here and there.

Maybe it is not the #1 album by Sacrifice but still a great effort. Let's hope that Dark Angel will also bring out another album in 25 so that we have two (hopefully) cool thrash attacks in the upcoming year.

Rating: 8 out of 10