It's only taken a decade-and-a-half but Toronto, ON-based thrash metal quartet Sacrifice have finally released a new album.
The history: after forming in the early '80s, Sacrifice quickly became one of thrash's most revered acts. However, they unceremoniously disbanded after releasing their fourth album, 1993's Apocalypse Inside. No news or hype; they were just gone.
So when Sacrifice reunited in 2006, fans were surprised but pleased. The gig garnered massive attention and quickly sold-out, with supporters trekking in from all corners of the globe to catch what the band asserted was an anomaly: a "one-off" gig with no future commitments or plans thereafter.
That's why the release of a new full-length effort is stirring up more attention. The band - guitarist/vocalist Rob Urbinati, guitarist Joe Rico, bassist Scott Watts and drummer Gus Pynn - have completed their fifth album, The Ones I Condemn (Sonic Unyon), a mere 16 years after Apocalypse Inside .
Naturally, the metal world is aflutter, wondering if Sacrifice reunited to capitalize on the current thrash metal nostalgia or if this new music was spawned from the seeds of inspiration. As Urbinati notes, it's genuine. They didn't expect to issue something after that legendary one-night-only gig.
"We were pretty focused on doing that show," he admits. "It took us a while to get back to the point where we could play the songs where we'd actually want to play them in front of people. We wanted to play that show like it was our last and had no plans beyond it."
After the show's success, their personal interest in Sacrifice was rekindled and only then did writing for The Ones I Condemn begin. Regardless, the crew were hesitant to commit to anything until they were certain the Sacrifice of 2009 could hold their own against the Sacrifice of the '80s and '90s.
"When we actually decided... well, we didn't really decide to [record]," Urbinati continues. "We decided to try writing some songs. Some of the criteria we laid down was that it had to sound like Sacrifice, without a doubt, and it had to be better than you'd expect that we'd do. We felt like we met that so here's the new album. When we started putting some songs together, it came together really well, really easily. We threw out a lot of good stuff but the songs that worked really fell into place easily."
Still, with The Ones I Condemn finally breaking Sacrifice's recorded silence of over a decade-and-a-half, and in keeping with their tradition of virtually perfect thrash, Urbinati admits they've set an incredibly high bar to match, let alone surpass, in the future. Therefore, as with that 2006 show, he's not making any promises for the band's future, lest they fail to live up to their spotless reputation.
"We'll have to see [about the future]. We'll probably write more but once again, if we can't surpass what we've done with this album, which will be really hard to do, then we won't put out anything until we can."
The history: after forming in the early '80s, Sacrifice quickly became one of thrash's most revered acts. However, they unceremoniously disbanded after releasing their fourth album, 1993's Apocalypse Inside. No news or hype; they were just gone.
So when Sacrifice reunited in 2006, fans were surprised but pleased. The gig garnered massive attention and quickly sold-out, with supporters trekking in from all corners of the globe to catch what the band asserted was an anomaly: a "one-off" gig with no future commitments or plans thereafter.
That's why the release of a new full-length effort is stirring up more attention. The band - guitarist/vocalist Rob Urbinati, guitarist Joe Rico, bassist Scott Watts and drummer Gus Pynn - have completed their fifth album, The Ones I Condemn (Sonic Unyon), a mere 16 years after Apocalypse Inside .
Naturally, the metal world is aflutter, wondering if Sacrifice reunited to capitalize on the current thrash metal nostalgia or if this new music was spawned from the seeds of inspiration. As Urbinati notes, it's genuine. They didn't expect to issue something after that legendary one-night-only gig.
"We were pretty focused on doing that show," he admits. "It took us a while to get back to the point where we could play the songs where we'd actually want to play them in front of people. We wanted to play that show like it was our last and had no plans beyond it."
After the show's success, their personal interest in Sacrifice was rekindled and only then did writing for The Ones I Condemn begin. Regardless, the crew were hesitant to commit to anything until they were certain the Sacrifice of 2009 could hold their own against the Sacrifice of the '80s and '90s.
"When we actually decided... well, we didn't really decide to [record]," Urbinati continues. "We decided to try writing some songs. Some of the criteria we laid down was that it had to sound like Sacrifice, without a doubt, and it had to be better than you'd expect that we'd do. We felt like we met that so here's the new album. When we started putting some songs together, it came together really well, really easily. We threw out a lot of good stuff but the songs that worked really fell into place easily."
Still, with The Ones I Condemn finally breaking Sacrifice's recorded silence of over a decade-and-a-half, and in keeping with their tradition of virtually perfect thrash, Urbinati admits they've set an incredibly high bar to match, let alone surpass, in the future. Therefore, as with that 2006 show, he's not making any promises for the band's future, lest they fail to live up to their spotless reputation.
"We'll have to see [about the future]. We'll probably write more but once again, if we can't surpass what we've done with this album, which will be really hard to do, then we won't put out anything until we can."