CRIMINAL “Sacrificio”

By Dr. Abner Mality

Very few guys have been around the South American metal scene longer than Anton Reisenegger. He goes back to the very earliest days when only SEPULTURA and HOLOCAUSTO could be mentioned as contemporaries. For the last 25 years or so, his main product has been CRIMINAL and that band’s output has been out on an erratic basis.

“Sacrificio” is the newest CRIMINAL offering and if you loved SEPULTURA in their “Chaos A.D.” days, you’re gonna eat this up with a spoon. It’s grooving death/thrash that mixes hard riffing with really bouncy, easy to get into hooks. Nothing here is going to break the internet and if you’re into the ugliest death metal, you will likely find this a bit too commercial, even though the chances of this being on the radio is nil. The sound is clean but crunchy and the songs blaze by in quick and efficient fashion.

A lot of the album is inspired by the political unrest in Chile, which bleeds through in songs like “Live On Your Knees”, “Zona de Sacrificio” and “Theocrazy”. It’s the same kind of anger which fueled SEPULTURA tunes like “Refuse/Resist” and “Territory”, although CRIMINAL retains a lot of old school thrashing as well. Reisenegger’s vocals aren’t a million miles off of Max Cavalera’s, either.

It may seem overbearing of me to keep bringing up SEPULTURA but it can’t be avoided. That doesn’t mean this is a bad record at all...in fact, I recommend it! It’s a good, hard-charging listen, but I can’t see it pushing CRIMINAL through to the next level.

METAL BLADE

CRIMINAL