Head On Collision

So it’s come to this already, huh? We’ve reached the point where thrash is ingesting itself once again. While Ritual Sacrifice is a stable dose of classic, dark thrash metal, there’s no denying just how directly this quartet have taken influences from the relentless hammering of Razor and the riff structuring and bleak lyricism of Slayer. While they do it quite well, there’s such an obvious lack of originality to Ritual Sacrifice that the entire album is rendered mediocre at best. It tends to unfold with only the odd verse or breakdown truly standing out. Everything is too familiar; it feels like déjà vu. These tunes have been pilfered and tweaked just enough to be original but we know we’ve heard ’em before, even if we can’t nail down the inspiring tune. Well, except for "Permanent Damage,” which is clearly culled from "Born Of Fire.” At least they’re smart enough to rip off the best.