Sacrificial Blood / Traitor

I’m familiar with Sacrificial Blood and their fondness for cover songs; still, it was a surprise to note that Girlschool had got the New Jersey group’s treatment on this split with Traitor, a pretty new band hailing from Pennsylvania. Unusually, both groups have a drummer that contributes vocals, even if Traitor share singing duties a little more evenly among their 4 members. For all 3 songs on the split, fast metal is the order of the day, varying from the death thrash of Sacrificial Blood’s original composition ‘Beware I Live’ to the more melodic thrash and speed styles used on the cover and Traitor’s ‘Weapon X’. Happily, the songs were recorded exclusively for the split, so as of now this seems worth the effort of tracking down.

Although Sacrificial Blood prove a fun listen on their full-lengths, I actually prefer Traitor’s song here, largely because it hits a peculiar niche between more traditional speed metal with thrashy rhythmic shifts and US power metal, actually gaining distinctive flavours from all those styles. The production sounds strong with a bit of grit, while Sacrificial Blood favour their typical old school grubbiness, causing the drums to clatter bouncily as Mike Keller barks out his vocals. Slayer riffing drives ‘Beware I Live’ and traditional heavy/speed metal gets suitably frenetic treatment on the cover. In a way, Traitor show up Sacrificial Blood’s conservatism, making me wish the former band had recorded more than just a demo and EP before this.