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What’s up Sorry Staters?
Even when there’s nothing eventful happening, life seems to feel like a blur. Whenever I manage to escape my routine, I’m actually enjoying enduring the heat outside this summer, believe it or not. Trying to be within proximity of as many charcoal grills cooking veggie burgers and drinking as many beers by bodies of water as I can. Because Daniel was on his beach trip, we skipped a newsletter last week. So, what have I been up to? I guess I drove up to Richmond with a crew of people to go see Alvilda about a week ago! They were so great live. It was like a dream, or “a movie” as the kids say. A welcome joyful escape. My good buddy Eric Chubb opened the gig with his new band The Crazed where, rather than beating the life out of a drum set, he actually took on guitar and vocal duties. They covered “Walking Out On Love” and I saw the Alvilda ladies singing along. Pretty cool. Look forward to seeing what that band does next.
Now for my staff pick. Rather than talking about joyful dreamscapes, I’m going to talk about cold, heavy darkness. I will admit that I felt quite sad when Ozzy passed away. I did have a lil session of blasting some Sabbath along with the first couple Ozzy solo records. Those records are still special and were very formative for me. Especially when I was learning guitar, my dad was basically drilling into my head that Randy Rhoads is the gold standard and God’s gift to awesome rock guitar playing. Haha. I still love Randy’s playing. But along with my rotation of Ozzy listening, I’ve been throwing on this newly reissued album Tears by Sacrifice.
My familiarity with Sacrifice was somewhat limited. Just to be clear, we’re talking about the Sacrifice from Japan, not the Canadian band. I’ve always been drawn to Japanese heavy metal, my interest starting with more accessible bands like Loudness, but then moving onto Flatbacker, Sniper, and heavier stuff like Sabbrabells. In my exploration, I maybe had some vague awareness of Sacrifice’s first album Crest of Black from 1987. But of course, I’d never gotten my hands on a copy. I would later learn that this album is deemed sort of a “cult classic” for Japanese metal. Most of the Japanese stuff I’d heard was still glam-adjacent or still rooted in what I think of as more Scorpions-influenced rock. Even the more speed metal stuff still had flashy, soaring vocals and guitar work that was decidedly Judas Priest-esque. I discovered that Sacrifice’s sound is much darker and heavier—scary, even.
After Crest of Black, Sacrifice released two more albums that were only available on CD format in their initial release. Bitter Lake Recordings, a label that reissues a lot of great stuff, managed to finally release these long overdue Sacrifice albums on vinyl for the first time. My journey with Sacrifice really began with their 1990 album Total Steel when Bitter Lake reissued that record back in 2020. The evolution from Crest of Black to Total Steel moves from the brittle, cultish, Venom-esque metal sound of a band’s early stages to a much more polished, tight and crispy production. What’s funny is that even though I guess I could have easily gone and checked the band’s Discogs page, I didn’t really know another step in the Sacrifice trilogy was awaiting me. Honestly, I’m kinda happy my initial experience hearing Tears was throwing the actual record onto the turntable for the first time.
What can I say about Sacrifice’s sound? I guess you would describe them as a thrash metal band. But I think a hallmark, signature element of the band’s sound is how dirgey the riffs are, like these gritty, plodding chugs played with groove and restraint waiting to explode. Makes me clench my teeth. Like, I would say a good portion of Sacrifice’s songwriting is mid-paced, low and grunting. But like insanely powerful. The word I want to use is like “muscular?” These riffs make me feel like a scary dude in the back of a smoky motorcycle club with humungous biceps is slowly walking over to punch me repeatedly in the face. I would, for example, describe a lot thrash guitar playing as being very biting and sharp. The guitar playing on this record is like blunt force trauma. It feels like being bludgeoned. If you wanna know what a go-to Sacrifice riff sounds like, just listen to the guitar intro of “Time Slips Through In Front Of Your Eyes” with the way the beat kicks in, and there you have it.
On the first epic track, “Never Land Never Again,” this boiling intensity, which is played in the pocket at a slow groove, finally grows into this grandiose outro with the tightest double-kick drum work you’ve ever heard, only to devolve into this slow, doomy, almost ceremonious completion. I feel like this crescendo-like building of song structures is masterful. But then, the band amps up the energy on the 2nd track, “Breaking The Silence of The Night,” which is like if you took the punkified Motörhead-influenced foundation of G-Zet, but then covered it in stainless steel armor. I gotta say, for the guitar tone being so gritty and blunt, I love guitarist Hiroyuki Murakami’s lead playing. In contrast to the riffing, his solos are these bright, meditative, intelligently structured melodic flourishes. Literally goosebump inducing.
From what I can decipher, it seems like Sacrifice was mostly driven by bandleader and lead vocalist Akira Sugiuchi. His voice is so unique, totally raspy like he’s been preparing to go on stage by chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking a fifth of Jack Daniel’s. He rides over the top of the instrumentation with these throaty, abrasive, bellowing screams from the underworld. That said, the vocal arrangements, along with the chanted gang background vocals, are super catchy. Like how the huge chanted vocal hook of “Do I Fight For God” follows the rhythm of the riff. I can just imagine Sacrifice playing back in the early 90s and seeing a sea of studded, leather-clad fists in the air just shouting along.
Apparently, Sacrifice has recently reunited and they just played a couple shows in California. In true DIY underground love fashion, I think they only played with punk bands! Like I think The Dark played the show. So rad. Damn, really wish I’d known so I could have seen them… Oh well!
Anyway, I feel like these records should be considered underground metal classics. Maybe with these two 90s albums finally getting the proper vinyl treatment and being available outside of Japan, Sacrifice may finally get the credit they deserve. Hope you Sorry State readers give Tears a chance based on my description. Or not, whatever haha. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff