From ‘War Pigs’ to the present day, metal and politics have gone hand in hand and Sacred Reich has never shied away from the subject. As far back as their Draining You of Life demo in 1986, the Arizona thrashers made it abundantly clear that fascism is bullshit, Nazis are the enemy, and that oppression in any form should not be tolerated. This steadfast opposition to dictatorship, corruption, and social injustice has served them well for over thirty years, but recently the band has found themselves in the unbelievable position of actually having to defend those views. Swamping their social media pages with insults and demands to “stop making everything political”, some of their so-called “fans” really seem to have missed the entire fucking point of Sacred Reich.
When Ignorance (Metal Blade) originally surfaced in 1987, the United States was experiencing a heightened level of fear and paranoia. Now at the time of this latest reissue, unrest and gnawing uncertainty is still prevalent but the threat of global nuclear conflict has been replaced by a worldwide pandemic, unprecedented distrust in governmental leadership, media-driven conspiracy theories, and a United States so utterly disunited that not even warnings of a possible civil war seem all that far-fetched.
Three decades on and Sacred Reich’s political views have never been more relevant. After an ominous opening chug, ‘Death Squad’ erupts into a frenzy of vicious riffs and quickfire drumming, frontman Phil Rind spitting out the lyrics with venomous attitude. A rather prescient cut about a killer virus, ‘Victim of Demise’ is followed by the instrumental ‘Laid to Rest’ and the monstrous title track with its warnings about pollution. The band turn their attentions to religion on the crushing ‘No Believers’, and homicidal mania on ‘Violent Solutions’ and ‘Rest in Peace’, the latter an insane blast of hyperspeed punk/thrash at least partially inspired by A Nightmare on Elm Street film series. The eponymously titled ‘Sacred Reich’ is three minutes of groove infused Nazi bashing speed before the album closes with ‘Administrative Decisions’, a rallying cry against the mindless conformity of the education system. The version of ‘Ignorance’ taken from the Metal Massacre VIII (Metal Blade) compilation is also included as a bonus.
9 / 10
An interim release that saw the birth of one of the band’s most popular and enduring songs, Surf Nicaragua (Metal Blade) also features the powerful and still fiercely relevant ‘One Nation’, a song about dreaming of a world free of racism, greed, and war. A completely unsurprising but also completely brilliant cover of Black Sabbath‘s ‘War Pigs’ is followed by ‘Draining You of Life’, reworked from their demo, and live versions of ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Death Squad’.
8 / 10
By the time the band released The American Way (Metal Blade) in 1990, thrash metal was a dying art form. As Russia entered an era of glasnost and perestroika, the threat of nuclear war faded, and with it, much of the fear and paranoia that had driven the genre with such purpose for the past few years. Still, even as the scene floundered, the occasional gem was still to be found and (as long as you ignore the pointless funk noodlings of ’31 Flavors’) The American Way was one of them. Still rippling with aggression, the band had added melody and groove, making tracks like ‘Crimes Against Humanity’, the Anti-Apartheid ‘State of Emergency’ opener, ‘Love… Hate’, and the classic, Metallica infused title track stand apart from the raw ferocity of Ignorance. The band still knew how to move at full tilt though, as displayed on the fast parts of ‘Who’s to Blame’, a song about teenage suicide, and the album’s proper closer ‘I Don’t Know’.
8 / 10
Three superb releases which in many cases show how the more things change the more they stay the same, the themes of political tension and social awareness still remaining applicable to modern society and recent events.
In short: Nazis bad, Sacred Reich good.
Order the Sacred Reich reissues here: https://www.metalblade.com/sacredreich/#order
GARY ALCOCK