Sacrifice
The Ones I Condemn

September 2009
Released: 2009, Marquee Records
Rating: 5.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Comebacks of once disbanded metal bands seem to be this day´s phenomenon, and gladly quite a few of them have been truly worth them although some may rightfully ask what we need all these comebacks for?



Well, if it´s as convincing comeback as what the Canadian thrashers Sacrifice have clearly proved it to be on their 5th full-length album, THE ONES I CONDEMN, then by all means be my guest. It´s been 16 years since the band´s last album, APOCALYPSE INSIDE (on Metal Blade), came out – and now on Sacrifice´s comeback album THE ONES I CONDEMN, the band seems to be back in full, malicious strike, simply basing my opinion on strictly on the new songs on their fantastic latest effort.



The album kicks off with a catchy 2-song instrumental song “We Will Prevail”, which basically warms up everything to come further on the album. The title track, “The Ones I Condemn”, sets determinedly a standard for this old school thrash opus, being one vicious and aggressive thrasher as it proves to be. After that, there´s no turning back really. “Give Me Justice” and “The Great Wall” add more steam into a smoothly running Sacrifice´s thrash machine, being just beautiful reminiscences from the band´s past works, plus naturally the times when Sacrifice were on the same top league of Canadian thrash along with bands like Voivod, Razor, Infernäl Mäjesty, Annihilator, Armoros - and so on, and so on…



Songs like “Tetragrammaton”, “Atrocity”, “The Devil´s Martyr" (featuring Jed Simon from SYL, Tenet, etc. doing some killer solo work – as well as and Dave Hewson, that Slaughter / Strappado fame, spitting out his infamous vocals for this song), “Desolation Alive”, etc. – filled with killer and breaking riffs, a fair amount of cleverly structured tempo changes, Rob´s rock-slicing vocal style – all this having a real strong old school spirit and attitude involved with this whole outcome, etc., are really something that make you put to think do we seriously have the best thrash album of 2009 in our hands? Now after spinning around the album non-stop for the last 3 days, I think I am absolutely convinced and secure to say “Yes, we do indeed…”. THE ONES I CONDEMN is – if I am allowed to use probably the most worn-out cliché, thrash-tastic thoroughly – all the 10 songs on it! No gimmicks – no bullshit, just a dose of splendid thrashing-to-the-bone.



The further the album actually progresses on, the better one is about to realize, how superb and convincing job the guys of Sacrifice have done with their brilliant comeback album. They have truly lived up to all those expectations that were directed to this album in advance – and just surprising everyone basically by that fact how well they were able to stay and stick loyally to their past sound, knowing it´s been almost two long decades since Sacrifice called it quits.



Just get this fucking amazing release in order to realize yourself that some comebacks are truly worth our undivided attention. And that´s exactly what THE ONES I CONDEMN is all about – seriously, I mean. Sacrifice did exactly all that they promised to do in the first place: to record a comeback album full of old-school thrash, done with a true 80s spirit. And that can never be a bad thing, can it? ;o)