Ritual Sacrifice

Another badass new release from Areadeath Productions is an early discography of ripping thrash from Rhode Island's Ritual Sacrifice. Included are the "Into Darkness, We Fall" (1992), "The Inhuman Race" (1990), and self-titled (1989) demos, along with a seven-track live set recorded on WRIU radio in 1991 – totaling a little less than an hour's worth of absolutely awesome underground thrash that absolutely deserved a release of this nature on every level. I sort of expected there to be more of a death metal vibe happening with this material, but that's not the case at all. For the most part it's just straight up thrash chock full of raging riffs and some fuckin' sick breakdowns, and in fact there's even quite a bit of a crossover influence happening from time to time, especially with some of the rippingly fast vocal arrangements. It's just the perfect combination of the crunchy and somewhat technical edge of the late-80's Bay Area scene with some of the slightly catchier "groove" of east coast bands like Anthrax and Nuclear Assault (though they do not sound like either of those bands, so don't get the wrong idea). The songwriting is just total fucking gold across the board here, I'm totally blown away. The sound quality's pretty damn good, too. There's just a touch of tape hiss here and there (no big deal at all), but nothing sounds muddy or uneven, and to my great surprise the live radio tracks sound almost exactly like the studio demo recordings. There's almost no indication whatsover that they were recorded live. Impressive. Even the 1989 demo, while a bit rougher, sounds pretty damn good after all these years. I'm not sure why the tracklist isn't arranged in reverse chronological order, though (the 1991 radio set – which includes two tracks not on any demo – for some reason appears after the 1990 demo but before the 1989 demo). I guess it's because the 1989 demo does have the rawest sound quality, but… like I said, it sounds fine, so… if not following a timeline they probably should've put the three demos together and tacked the live tracks on at the end. Go figure. The full-color 12-page booklet contains lyrics, a partial band history, and plenty of old photos and artwork. There are some surprisingly awesome lyrics, too. The band name might suggest your typical "evil" lyrical content, but that's not really what's going on here at all: Our churches are empty – our prisons are full, a state of depression exists. Mothers and fathers abusing their children, and blame music when they slit their wrists. Preaching conformity – watch the TV, spreading the corporate disease. Without faith in mankind – hell on earth we will find, until death brings the only release. Awesome, awesome stuff. I'm all over this…