Album review: SACRIFICIO – Sacrificio

Iron Bonehead / Nuclear War Now! – Out Now.

Anonymity, it seems, has become a much desirable form of advertisement for bands these days – one that the Spanish Thrash/Death Metal trio Sacrificio seems to have definitely subscribed to.

The only source of information included in the Iron Bonehead/Nuclear War Now press release which accompanies this six track mini LP is that they hail from the capital city Madrid and that its members have, at some point in the past, been involved in the works of classic undergrounds outfits of the local scene such as Gorath and Teitanblood.

Not enough to go by but, at the end of the day, it is the music that’s required to do all the talking, right? Let’s see what’s on offer here.

Like the majority of their fellow-countrymen, Sacificio’s musical influences hail from a period in the history of our where the most extreme band in the world was Possessed and a guitar solo was only acceptable if it operated upon the same blueprints as those performed by Slayer’s axeman Jeff Hanneman.

As one ought to expect, the sound on offer is raw with distortion reigning supreme while the focus of the compositions are no so much towards reaching technical excellence but conveying the type of sinister emotion and feel intended by their creators.

So, with all that in mind, how desirable a six track release such as this one really is?

While the band tackles the task of creating their maiden release with much enthusiasm and the knowledge of how to write decent old-school Metal material is clearly there, some of the performances on offer often come across as pretty amateurish and below the levels expected by any band.

Take for instance the opening two minute intro “Ritos Funerarios”; while manages to successfully create an atmosphere reminiscent of that of early Sodom the drummer seems unable to keep proper timing even though the part that he’s asked to perform is pretty simple indeed.

Things improve significantly in the Slayer-influenced “Vastagos De La Abominacion” and the first side of this release concludes with the Celtic Frost sounding, groove laden same-titled ditto. The second side of this mini LP showcases similar types of strengths and weaknesses.

“Ungido En Sangre” is another interesting 80s-sounding composition whose tempo suffers as a result of lack of proper timing and fares badly when compared to the Sodom-influenced follow-up “Esclavos De La Cruz” whose opening riff sounds quite similar to that which Tom Angelripper created for his all-time classic opus “Conqueror”.

As far as the closing tune is concerned; well, “Centinela De Los Tumulos” is another composition which suffers as a result of the guitar and drums being unable to see eye to eye with regards following a properly timed beat/tempo.

There is no denying that these three lads absolutely love the genre that they have chosen to serve and that their hearts are definitely in the right place as far as their newly founded band is concerned.

Having said that, it is clearly audible that a lot of hard work needs to first take place before things begin to truly click and we are in position to finally talk about a collection of songs whose quality and energy can compare to those of extreme bands of a similar musical education and orientation such as Desaster and Destroyer 666.

John Stefanis

Rating: **1/2 (2.5/5.0)

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BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

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