This German death metal machine celebrate 20 years of existence with this effort ‘Prey For Your Gods’, a remarkable feat in this day and age but also a travesty when you hear bands that are as good as this laying under the radar for so long.
Rather than being “old school” like everyone nowadays, Sacrificium carve their music on a slightly more modern cloth. They started as a thrash band and there is plenty death thrash influences included on this album along the way, including the very to the point opener “Contradiction of a Depressed Void’. The closing track ‘Afraid to Breathe’ has a guitar tone that’s slightly progressive, a little like Death mixed with Heartwork era Carcass, it sounds refreshing.
One real plus point for this release is Sacrificium’s use of melody, as much as you can state is melody within death metal. They have a touch of soul and I guess this is where the experience of 20 years in the business comes to fruition. Although not always on point for me, it’s refreshing to hear a band not simply being old school for the hell of it. I actually find some of the tracks akin to Holland’s Detonation, it is that more modern approach, a slightly more refined clean cut snarl to the sound although it thankfully does not sound mechanised.
This is quite a refreshing death/thrash fix for a fan who wants to break free of the “scene” associated with being cool and old school, it’s not ground breaking, but it is very well crafted and suitably brutal where it needs to be.
(7/10 Paul Maddison)
Leave a Reply