Slaughter Prophecy

Powerhouse riff masters Sacred Steel have been basked in a much more positive light lately, with their newest album Heavy Metal Sacrifice receiving positive reviews across the board. That wasn't always the case, as many listeners understandably have a difficult time coming to terms with Mutz's idiosyncratic and tonedeaf warbling. For me, I was always too preoccupied with the napalm-laced riffage to worry over the vocals too much. In fact, it has given Sacred Steel a rather distinctive sound and helps them stand apart. Slaughter Prophecy is one of the band's heavier albums, bordering on death/thrash metal at times, replete with proper death grunts amid the incessant din of double bass and an endearingly raw presentation from soup to nuts.

A typical and familiar accretion of dissonance is embedded into the riffing structure, which nails the murk and mire of Kreator-esque thrashing along with more traditional Germanic heavy metal tropes ala Wizard, Rebellion et al. The latter is what Sacred Steel is labeled as most of the time, but their style is actually much more eclectic than it lets on at first. The gravitas and momentum of notation on tracks like "Sacred Bloody Steel" and the title track razes many a landscape, inter alia scant lead work and chunky madcap rhythm construction. Mutz's warbling hardly meshes cohesively with the rest, but the more standard death growls grant a more proper backdrop for the crushing riffage, which should help display its full potential for those repulsed by the vocals. The gang shouts function well against the more powerful balance of the drums and guitars, which are typically locked in a lower-register affair with the double-bass scattering punishment like a chain gun.

"Lay Me to My Grave" is my favorite song here, with a brooding lo-fi synth opening and overall epic, ascending and monolithic cadence. This is epic heavy metal done Sacred Steel's way, and few can best them at this particular game. The borderline doom tendencies paint a stark contrast against the speedier remainder, and complement the thick, dense chords very well. The death metal undercurrents are fleeting and not focused on outright, adding a fine stylistic outlier to help preclude stagnation. Slaughter Prophecy is not particularly loaded with twists and turns, but is an engaging affair par for the course of Sacred Steel's mid-period work, roughly on par with Iron Blessings.

For those newly familiar with these guys courtesy of their more recent work, don't be afraid to dig deeper into their back catalogue. This is some of the heavier, more riff-centric material struck from this particular mold. Not intensely memorable, but well more than merely competent and stuffed with enough high-tempo thrashers to satiate most neck jerking junkies out there. Don't come into this expecting anthemic, mid-paced heavy metal in the Grave Digger mold or what have you. Condition yourself to get past the vocals and enjoy a potpourri of sternum-cracking riffage.