Liste der Bands Thrash Metal Sacred Reich Awakening

During the late eighties and early nineties, there was an FM metal station called Z Rock, which was broadcasted nationally via satellite from Dallas, Texas. In ninety three they regularly played songs from Sacred Reich’s Independent album. It was a great CD with sludgy thrash rhythms and catchy grooves. The vocals were charismatic with inspirational messages about standing up for yourself and competing in life. Then their ninety six offering, Heal, was faster with some grinding mixed with the sludgy grooves. But some of the songs sounded similar to the previous album and others seemed to fit into the grunge scene of the time. It’s been twenty three years since their last album, but they had performed at some festivals overseas and released a single song last year. The original rhythm guitarist, Jason Rainey, quit the band earlier this year due to undisclosed Health concerns. So he was promptly replaced. The album art depicts a soldier lying down, while wearing a gas mask and surrounded by Hindu and Mayan religious figures.

The album commences with the title track, which runs with mild thrashing and conservative drumming at a medium tempo. Then the bassist joins in with a choppy melody and the lead guitarist picks out a high note solo. The music reverts to the initial thrash thrashing rhythm, as the vocalist howls out his lyrics at mid tone. “Deep inside.” “In my mind.” “I found the light.” About halfway in, the rhythm momentarily shifts into a different direction, with a change in the bass pattern. “Living in a fog.” “Wasting every day.” “I had lost my way.” After the first vocalist quit in eighty six, Phil Rind undertook the duty and sang on all of the band’s recorded releases. He still has a powerful voice at age fifty. But his approach is different now, sounding somewhere between Sammy Hagar and John Connelly of Nuclear Assault.

The new rhythm guitarist is twenty two year old Joey Radziwill, the son of session drummer Tim Radziwill. He has been playing instruments since age four and has been a death metal guitarist in the Phoenix nightclub circuits. Lead guitarist Wiley Arnett has been with the group since eighty six and has performed in all of the band’s material. There is a lot of midrange thrashing and grinding at medium speed. The guitar solos are somewhat articulate, but they are mediocre in quality and are usually short yet sweet. The fourth song, Manifest Reality, kicks off with some rough low note thrashing. Then the pace picks up more intensely with a style similar to Nuclear Assault, using East coast mosh styled thrashing and grinding. The vocalist hoarsely commands his lines. “Leaders can’t save the day.” “It’s up to us, there is no other way.”

The fifth track, Killing Machine, starts out with a strong headbanging melody at a medium speed. The texture is simple and old school. The vocalist blurts out his lyrics in rhythmic cadence. “Johnny got his gun and a uniform, when he signed up to defend the flag.” “He loved his country so much , they sent him off to fight in a foreign land.” Then towards the end, the bass rhythm changes and a light high note guitar solo cuts in. “Bodies for the killing machine.” “Your life for the killing machine.” Phil Rind has been the group’s bassist since mid eighty five, after the first one quit. As the senior band member and a songwriter, he is a leader in this group. He usually drives heavily with the lower notes, to strengthen these compositions. His midrange notes often coincide with the thrashing and grinding, to complement the guitar music.

Drummer Dave McClain joined Sacred Reich in ninety one and this is his third album with them. Through the band’s downtime, he was also a member of Machine Head for twenty three years and performed on eight of their releases. He’s very lively with swift play and vividly mixes up the beat tones. There are plenty of crossover patterns, from the high to the lower pitches and sometimes the bass drum beats are more pronounced. The final piece, Something to Believe, begins with slow yet jazzy drum beats. Then the lead guitarist joins in with a low note power rhythm and the bassist subtly plays even lower notes in this slower paced song. Phil hollers out his lines with a feeling of conviction. “Nothing to be found.” “Nothing that seems real.” “Nothing I can feel.” Then the rhythm crashes forth heavily at mid tempo, with an air of Southern rock. About halfway in, the lead guitarist articulates a mild high note solo, which rambles on for forty five seconds. “Give me something to believe.” “Give me something I can see.”

Some critics are ripping this album because it is less than thirty two minutes long. But three of their four previous albums were thirty something minutes in length. Their debut album, Ignorance, was less than thirty three minutes in duration. Awakening isn’t as charismatic as Independent was and it doesn’t have the contemporary grooves that Heal had. It doesn’t display the choppy guitar leads like The American Way did. The textures aren’t as dynamic as Ignorance or as ferocious as Surf Nicaragua was. Awakening is a much simpler collection of compositions, than the other installments in their discography. It seems to be lacking some hardnosed guitar riffs and the textures are mostly milder, with an air of Southern rock. This current release thrashes out okay, but they were better with guitarist Jason Rainey and he may have been a key songwriter as well. The fact that Awakening sounds different is a good attribute, but it isn’t one of their better albums. All of the songs are decent, but there aren’t any standouts that are suitable for an impressive playlist.