SACRIFICE
TOTAL STEEL

Much like Japanese punk takes bog-standard tropes and upends them in unique ways, so, too, did SACRIFICE do such with crossover on Total Steel. Aptly titled in its dedication to rivetheaded ignorance-is-bliss, Total Steel is a nine-song/46-monster which mainlines then-contemporaneous Cro-Mags, Venom, Razor, Carnivore, the UK’s Sacrilege, Nasty Savage, The Exploited, and even early Celtic Frost into something that sounds like all those simultaneously and nothing like ‘em at all. Credit is due to the band’s bullheaded approach to riffing: hammer/hammer/hammer, hypnotically so, stripping everything down to its barbaric basics and then build ‘em up to towering heights. Literally, you DROWN in their crush here, as nearly every vocal-led track tops five minutes, allowing for maximal immersion. Likewise, SACRIFICE’s execution is creepy and sleazy in equal measure, spitting forth attitude even when the linguistic translations go astray. But, the closing couplet of “Don’t Wanna Be Back in Black Days” and “Cold Storm” perhaps perfectly underline their particular headspace.