SACRIFICE – Volume Six LP (MARBLE)

Following on from first generation Canadian speed metal pioneers Anvil and Exciter and heavily influenced by local Toronto thrash legends Razor, Scarboroughs Sacrifice set out to make history a short while later in 1984. When the band released their debut album Torment In Fire in 1986, reactions were very encouraging, at home in Canada as well as globally. Consequently Rob Urbinati (vocals, guitar), Joe Rico (guitar), Scott Watts (bass) and Gus Pynn (drums) wasted not time in recording their second full-length platter. Forward To Termination saw the light of day not even twelve months later in 1987 (again on Fringe Product). Three more studio albums followed: Soldiers Of Misfortune (1990), Apocalypse Inside (1993) and The Ones I Condemn (2009).

Since 2016 Sacrifice had been working on new material for the follow-up to The Ones ICondemn. In December 2020, during the pandemic, the band released a demo version of a new song entitled World War V on the internet.

This paved the way for Sacrifices six studio album, aptly titled Volume Six, which was recorded and mixed at Phase One Studios in Toronto between September 2023 and May 2024 with engineer Darius Szepaniak.

All original four members are on Volume Six, comments vocalist/guitarist Rob Urbinati. We are very fortunate that we are all still into doing this. Sacrifice is the last of the classic thrash bands with the original line-up intact.

The original plan of the band was to record an EP. But we ended up with more great songs than we planned for, adds Urbinati, and at some point we agreed to record a whole album. It felt like old times, we were pretty excited to get in the studio again. When you write songs this is your ultimate goal, so we were ready, and yes, there was that old magic you can feel during recording. We just cant wait for everyone to hear the album. We are very confident that our old fans will like Volume Six and hopefully some new ones too.

I dont like to hear bands hype their own material, continues the singer/guitarist, but I will say that any Sacrifice fan will not be disappointed in the album. It is extremely fast, aggressive and it doesnt sound like a typical thrash album. Your Hunger For War for example has a very catchy riff and powerful fast parts. Missile is very punchy and quite a riff fest, whereas Incoming Mass Extinction has an 80s hardcore vibe and is very aggressive.

As you can see by the song titles, war is an important lyrical theme for Sacrifice, as Rob Urbinati explains: Missile was written after watching a show about drone pilots in the safety of the US, flying missions in Afghanistan. After work they just go home to regular life. And Your Hunger For War is about how government propaganda can convince a population to hate their neighbours.

Sacrifice will also appear live in support of Volume Six: We are planning on playing our hometown of Toronto sometime in 2025. Canada has been very good to us despite being overlooked by the media here. But we also love Europe. We just played the Alcatraz festival in Belgium in 2024 and hopefully we can play more shows soon in the EU.MATTHIAS MADER

Ltd. 500xred/ black/ white marble vinyl, gatefold, insert, poster

High Roller Records 2025