Sacred Reich – Awakening (Review)

Artist: Sacred Reich
Album:  Awakening
Genre: Thrash Metal
Country: USA
Release date: 23rd of August , 2019
Released via : Metal Blade Records
Cover artwork © Metal Blade Records

Sacred Reich is one of those bands with a name you can reed a lot, but, to be honest, I have never listened to them. I’m not even sure if I know one of their songs. I like to use my work for this site to to fill up all these holes in my knowledge, if I get the chance to do so. Let’s have a look at the band’s facts first:

Sacred Reich are from Pheonix, Arizona, USA. They played Thrash Metal, started in the late 80s, and played their music till the mid 90s. They broke up in 2000, but started again in 2006 as a live-only band. In 2018 they announced a new album and here we have “Awakening”

“Awakening” comes along with 8 new songs and 31 minutes music in total. Quite short and old-school. Death Valley – the longest song with 5:22min – is directly followed by the shortest one, Revolution with 2:48min. My first two runs of the album were while playing Elite: Dangerous on my PS4. So I flew through space and listened to the music in the background. Nothing bad so far, hence we get at least 5 points. On my third run, I concentrated a little more on the music. Some nice riffs, some nice guitar solos, okay, no cowbell, but nobody is perfect… What I really like is Phil Rind’s voice. He does an awesome job in my opinion. I also like the drum sound and the mix in total.

The album starts with its titletrack “Awakening” – a heavy and aggressive song, driven by the simple riff and the drum groove. “Divide & Conquer” is a fast one, with a little break in the chorus. That’s how I like my Thrash Metal. “Manifest Reality” does it the same way. “Salvation”, “Killing Machine” and “Death Valley” are slower songs, compared to the fast ones.

Now, let’s talk about the last two songs: “Revolution” sounds less thrashy but more Hardcore or Punk. Somehow it doesn’t fit in, whereas on the other hand – it does. On “Something To Believe” I think you can hear the power and the abilities of Phil Rind, although this song sounds less thrashy but more like a real powerful ballad. I like both songs, and think that they stand out, because they sound special on the album. They give hope and power, after the more depressed sounding six tracks before. Nice twist in the end.

So, I did half the way now to Proxima Centauri while writing this review. There are 40 more minutes until I get there. The galaxy is really big in the game. Maybe I will listen to another album. But first let’s finish this review here: I think after 23 years without a new album, Sacred Reich did a very good job, a powerful album with some really good songs and a little surprise for me in the end. After listening to this album, I definetly like to hear more Sacred Reich and I think that they deserve their name, logo and artwork to be as well-known as it is. That’s how old-school Thrash Metal should sound in 2019. Thank you guys!

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

9/10

As usual, we added the favorite track(s) to our Transcended Review Playlist.