This album is utterly awesome! I used to not appreciate thrash. It used to not impress me. A friend once gave me tickets to see Metallica two years ago and I came away wondering what all the fuss over thrash was about. All these attitudes, of course, were demolished when I first heard the Vengeance demo. I love it! Vengeance is extremely tight. The vocal sound is very, very intense. When the band starts jamming, you hear a sound as precise as a machine. I know of no band who goes to the effort Vengeance does of laying down solid doctrine in their songs. Producer and label president, Caesar Kalinowski, tells me that even secular execs at Enigma are fully impressed with the songwriting of lead throat-scratcher Roger Martinez. "Human Sacrifice" is truly a ground-breaking album for Christian metal. This record features the most intense sound ever released to the Christian market. Christians have finally caught up with their secular counterparts (Slayer, Exodus, Kreator) and have even surpassed them. Don't buy this album if you're expecting a ballad. There's no soft lyrics or music here, except maybe the "Ascention" instrumental. Highlights on the album are: "Burn"; "I Love Hating Evil"; and the five songs from their demo ("White Throne", "Salvation", "He Is God", "Beheaded", and the title track). Martinez sends shivers down your spine when he howls and asks, "Are you listening to what I say?" or growls "I love hating evil," and also when he screams at the end of "Beheaded". Larry Farkas' leads are blazing, expecially during the title track. "Burn" and "Mulligan's Stew" show Vengeance's ability to slow down for a moshing style of thrash, which may be the type of sound thrashers take in the future if they decide to reach a broader audience. Everyone should buy at least two copies of this album. One for personal enjoyment and one to give to an unsaved thrasher/ speed metal freak. The incredible music will demand respect from thrash connoisseurs and the scriptural lyrics will confront all sinners. Thrash: Nobody does it better than Vengeance.
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #114Reviewed by Jamie Lee RakeAqua Net prettyboy metal would yet rule Sunset Strip for a while. But Vengeance Rising’s Human Sacrifice drove a nail in its mascara’ed coffin with as much force as the spike through Christ’s palm pictured on this album’s still-bracing cover. Stryper may have been wanting to send the devil to hell, but Roger Martinez sung to Satan in guttural intelligibility that he’s going to “Burn” down there,…Dead Zine 2002Reviewed by NecRoSarXThis is, arguably, the first true Christian thrash metal album. Sure, Bloodgood worked as the transition into what was the inevitable evolution of Christian hard music, but Vengeance Rising pushed it over the edge with their first album, Human Sacrifice. This was released in 1988, so to many, it may seem dated. That's because it is, really. To many in that era, and several in this day and age,…Adonai Metal Rock #3Reviewed by J. Le Bavouill'hardTranslated from the original French Imagine five explosive bipeds, weaned on speed, who, touched by Divine Grace, had tipped over, manes all out, into the radiant universe of White Metal...! But no need to let the imagination slog on any longer, since these eardrum descalers do very much exist and are currently imposing themselves as the number one of the Christian speed metal scene. These…Similar sounding releases
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