Sacrificio - "Guerra Eterna" (Iron Bonehead Productions/Nuclear War Now! Productions, 2016)

Band: Sacrificio
Title: Guerra Eterna
Genre: Proto-Black Metal
Year: 9th December 2016
Time: 34 min
Rating: 73/100













You can read my review (in Italian) about the demo of Sacrificio through the following link:

http://www.heavymetalwebzine.it/2015/01/22/sacrificio-sacrificio-2014/

There are bands always eager to explore new borders like Bölzer while other ones are completely deep-rooted into the most primordial black metal like Sacrificio. Proud of their radical sonic immobilism influenced by Venom as well as the Brazilians Holocausto or the Czechoslovakia's Master's Hammer, Sacrificio are a trio of  studded Satanic crusaders yet known by me in occasion of their 2014's homonymous demo. But, behind this young band founded in 2014, there is the same trio of Proclamation, one of the better Blasphemy-clones of all times that are responsible of an album's quadrilogy known as "AMEN" released between 2006 and 2012. Hence, here you are a good explanation about the sonic immobilism of Sacrificio and their will to play in a very ancient way similar to the Greek Principality of Hell or the Slovaks Malokarpatan, also if offering an interesting sound. So, Sacrificio have recently released their debut album "Guerra Eterna" through Iron Bonehead Productions in unholy co-operation with Nuclear War Now! Productions.

Comprising 8 songs (3 of them are taken from the 2014 demo and re-recorded for this occasion), "Guerra Eterna" ("Eternal War" in Spanish...and in Italian, my language) is an album of total rawness. The sound is very dark, especially regarding those cavernous and crude guitars that, effectively, reminds to me the recent past of the band in Proclamation. But here we are into the territories of proto-black metal, so don't expect the freezing riffs typical of modern black metal but "only" pure evilness emphasized greatly by the gut-wrenched screams of the singer/guitarist Juan C. Deus with some possessed falsettos à la Tom Araya of the very early Slayer.

Specifically, Sacrificio are able to range, also into the same song, from headbanging black/thrash metal attacks to slowdowns with a strong occult aura even due to some minimalist but effective keyboard parts. The songs, also being very raw, are dynamic and enough full of imaginative dynamics. In addition to all this, the music of Sacrificio is characterized by an omnipresent solo guitar able to erupt simple and atmospheric solos but some of them are very nervous. In my opinion, the better result of all this comes from the opening track, "La Sombra en la Ciénaga", also because this one reach good peaks of brutality due to quarrelsome crust punk passages and crazy blast-beats outbursts (the only ones into the entire album).

I must say that the tracklist of "Guerra Eterna" offers a good variety. So, there are the most violent songs of the album, represented especially by the initial numbers "La Sombra en la Ciénaga" and "Razas del Sepulcro" (also this one is strong of intense crust punk moments) with the addition of "Vástagos de la Abominación". But there is also "La Marca del Hereje", that's literally uncontrollable during its 6 minutes circa full of breaks with their relative restarts, guitar solos and containing even a good performance by the bassist A. Martin. Moreover, there are the instrumental tracks "Depositio Haereticorum" (atmospheric, creepy and ritualistic) and the following "Ritos Funerarios" (an occult mid-tempo that was the intro of 2014 demo). Finally, before the titletrack ending the album, you'll find the unpredictable "Centinela de los Túmulos", that has an interminable intro of 2 minutes with slow tribal tom-toms, an Arabian guitar solo and unleashed groovy mid-tempos à la Venom/NME.

In short, "Guerra Eterna" is one of those albums able to turn back the clock in a time where black metal wasn't still a precise genre. Despite this, Sacrificio shows a good personality because they are wild but also occult, in order to combine Venom with Mortuary Drape and the early Rotting Christ. Moreover, the production of "Guerra Eterna" is surely more listenable than the one of 2014 demo, that, instead, seemed to be taken from a forgotten session of "Welcome to Hell". But I must admit that I prefer the most violent songs of "Guerra Eterna" (obviously, "La Sombra en la Ciénaga" in primis) while I suggest to the band to spew forth more blast-beats and also to reduce the guitar solos because some of them are a bit invasive (an example of this is "La Marca del Hereje", where there, literally, a plethora of solos).

Tracklist:

1 - La Sombra en la Ciénaga
2 - Razas del Sepulcro
3 - La Marca del Hereje
4 - Depositio Haereticorum
5 - Ritos Funerarios
6 - Vástagos de la Abominación
7 - Centinela de los Túmulos
8 - Guerra Eterna

Line-up:

Juan C. Deus - vocals/guitars/keys/timpany/gong
A. Martin - bass
Angel P. Matesanz - drums

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/sacrificio.de.sangre
Iron Bonehead Productions: http://www.ironbonehead.de/
Nuclear War Now! Productions: http://www.nwnprod.com/