Sacred Reich : Heal

Sacred Reich hit the thrash scene in 1987 and had their fair share of great, hard-hitting albums. Here they are now, in 1996. Trends have come and gone, but Sacred Reich don't seem to care. I guess this can be considered a "come-back" album for the band. This album doesn't seem like it's meant to be taken seriously; During The American Way, Phil's political lyrics were very creative and set them apart from many other thrash bands in the scene. This album, however, sounds like Sacred Reich are jamming out together and having a good time. When I heard this, the first things that came to mind were Overkill and Machine Head. And guess what? It turns out that drummer Dave McClain was indeed apart of Machine Head. Phil's vocals aren't as powerful as on the early albums, but the drumming is pretty nice: many double-bass kicks spread through out, and the thrash assualt is unleashed like the Sacred Reich of old. The rhythm and lead guitars groove right along, as one would expect from Thrash Metal.

The first track starts out with a heavy, thrashy riff, and bulldozes its way right through in 2:27.
It's nice to hear this type of music in a genre that lost its commercial appeal about six years earlier (1990). "Heal" slows the pace down, but it never really climaxes. "Break Through" contains double-bass drumming, backed by a thick guitar sound. "Don't" reminds me of older Sacred Reich, as it's one of the better tracks on the album. A classic 80s thrash sound. "Jason's Idea" is a funny 39 second track of the band getting high by use of a bong pipe. "Seen Through My Eyes" is another mosher, with precise double-kick/bass drumming and a good rhythm pattern. The final track "The Power of the Written Word" sounds similar to the first track and is a blisteringly heavy Thrash song. Also worthy of mention is the short but sweet solo in  "I Don't Care." This is nothing new or ground breaking--it's just a fun album. And I think that's exactly what Sacred Reich meant it to be. Most of the songs run together, although a couple are oldschool all-out moshers. I would recommend earlier Sared Reich over this. It's very nice to hear this kind of music in the 90s.

Reviewed by Sam