{"id":79215,"date":"2019-08-23T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=79215"},"modified":"2019-09-08T16:58:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T16:58:38","slug":"album-review-sacred-reich-awakening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-sacred-reich-awakening\/","title":{"rendered":"SACRED REICH – Awakening (2019) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRED REICH
Awakening<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMetal Blade (2019)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The mid-to-late 90s was a poor time for heavy metal; sales dipped, bands split, sounds weakened and grunge had taken its toll. 1996 saw the fourth and what sadly seem to be the last album (Heal<\/em>) from Sacred Reich; a band which, in the 80s, were very much part of the aggressive \u201csecond wave\u201d of thrash metal with their 1987 debut opus Ignorance<\/em> then, and more so now, considered a classic within the field of chugging riffs and vocal chops.<\/p>\n

However, like so many acts Sacred Reich fizzled out. The band\u2019s hiatus came from 2000 to 2006, but since then, in spite of gigging, there had been no sign of a new full-length record\u2026until now.<\/p>\n

I have to say though, being an 80s thrasher myself, I did have my concerns. Firstly, I did lose interest in the band after 1990\u2019s The American Way<\/em>, and also without members Greg Hall (drums) and Jason Rainey (guitar) from their classic early line-up I was worried that this new platter would lack bite and possibly succumb to the dynamics of modern technology and come as a whimper rather than a snarl.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, for the most part my concerns were quashed as soon as the opening title track hit me. The whiplash guitar licks and Phil Rind\u2019s recognisable beefy slurps transported me right back to the mid-80s; his bass grinding effectively behind the barbed wire speed metal cacophony supplied by Wiley Arnett\u2019s fizzing lead and that barbaric percussion from Dave McClain.<\/p>\n

Yep, it\u2019s classic Sacred Reich, which may of course disappoint the purists who wanted the band to be over simply due to the omission of Hall and Rainey. But times change and we move on and it\u2019s great to see the veteran thrash acts remerging and showing the false, copycat kids how it\u2019s done, and Awakening<\/em> is the sort of electrical surge one requires in an age of dumbed down music. Just check out the ominous chugging throughout; and people say that the last Metallica album (Hardwired… To Self Destruct<\/em>) is thrash!<\/p>\n

But one thing I will say about Rind and company, and that is their ability to throw in an infectious melody which at times does drag the sound back into the 90s.<\/p>\n

Closer \u2018Something To Believe In\u2019 is the prime example of how Sacred Reich has always liked to experiment; this is very much groove metal bubbling with effective bass rumbles and a riff and chorus that is almost flecked with grunge nuances. It\u2019s not a return to the kaleidoscopic errors of \u201931 Flavors\u2019 (from The American Way<\/em>), but just one listen to the brilliant \u2018Divide & Conquer\u2019 shows you where the Sacred Reich sound is at; this one speeds with frenzy, homing in at an almost Slayer<\/a>-like brutality before suddenly hitting us with a soaring, melodic chorus that modern day Anthrax would be proud of. Either way, it\u2019s still classic thrash hissing with foaming venom and showering one with debris.<\/p>\n

\u2018Salvation\u2019 also follows that Anthrax-style of chugging, to the extent that it\u2019s almost not thrash (if that makes sense?); the combo comfortably hitting the right notes and Rind has never sounded so on point. But while the guitar rolls with plenty of meat, it could be argued that maybe Sacred Reich has succumbed to the modern perils whereby thrash acts seem to offer something a tad watered down. After all, \u2018Salvation\u2019 and the aforementioned \u2018Divide & Conquer\u2019 are not exactly the sneering, volatile slabs I was expecting; damn there\u2019s even a New Wave Of British Heavy Metal sound mixed with 70s stoner groove thrown in with some of the riffage and melody. Then maybe that was the joy but also the downfall of Sacred Reich during those murky early-to-mid 90s.<\/p>\n

But for the hardcore thrasher in us all there\u2019s still plenty to chew on within Awakening<\/em> and its 30-minute timeframe. The opening riffage of \u2018Manifest Reality\u2019 which then bleeds into a frantic, cutting speedball can only be applauded, as can the almost nostalgic chorus that then leads us into the militant opening of \u2018Killing Machine\u2019 where further chugs abound.<\/p>\n

Yet why do I find the whole feel of the album so comfortable, and should I be critical of such values? I guess not. After all, Sacred Reich stopped being a thrash act a long, long time ago. So the steady craft of \u2018Killing Machine\u2019 and downright stoner ethics of \u2018Death Valley\u2019 should come as no surprise. And it\u2019s because of these vibes that the album will divide fans, because I\u2019m sure that, even through our ignorance, some of us thrash heads would\u2019ve been expecting Phil Rind and co. to return to the debut sound.<\/p>\n

So for such assumptions many will be disappointed with the laborious, grunge-soaked glimmers of \u2018Death Valley\u2019, which in reality seems out of place \u2013 especially as the crossover elements of \u2018Revolution\u2019 come speeding in like a manic hybrid of Suicidal Tendencies and D.R.I. So I\u2019m left frustrated, gritting my teeth at the band for daring to tease us with political thrash outbursts and then slapping us back out of shape with a mediocre groove-based tune.<\/p>\n

Awakening<\/em> only offers us eight tracks, so if more thrashier compositions had been thrown at us we may have forgiven the band for its straying from the path. But in a world where retro thrash is very much flavour of the decade and bands are once again fighting for supremacy in the food chain, I\u2019m not quite sure if Sacred Reich\u2019s fifth outing has done enough to win me over.<\/p>\n

In a sense Awakening<\/em>, for us nostalgia freaks who were there originally, is like the return of your favourite wrestler to the ring only to find that he lacks the hunger or fitness regime to revert back to type. Sacred Reich should\u2019ve reverted back to being a sonic thrash force but they haven\u2019t. Instead, rather than an awakening, the band\u2019s return is more of an all too brief flashback that jolts us then sends us back to a comforting dream of better times.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SACRED REICHAwakening Metal Blade (2019)Rating: 7\/10 The mid-to-late 90s was a poor time for heavy metal; sales dipped, bands split, sounds weakened and grunge had taken its toll. 1996 saw the fourth and what sadly seem to be the last album (Heal) from Sacred Reich; a band which, in the 80s, were very much part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-sacred-reich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79216,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79215\/revisions\/79216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}