Compendium of Heavy Metal

Sacred Reich – Surf Nicaragua Cassette Review (Metal Blade)   by Joe E.Giannetti

I can be simple about this one. Bollocks to all newbie thrash teens who don’t get it: This is one of the classic eighties thrash metal EP’s. For one it has the most famous Sacred Reich track on it (‘Surf Nicaragua’) which incorporated some heavily punk influenced straight forward uptempo thrash metal as well as interesting late-eighties breaks and the famous Beach Boys surfing riff. For modern standards this happy form of thrash metal is of course not ‘true’ nor ‘evil’ enough since sarcasm and cynicism in metal is something newbies do not seem to understand anymore *sigh*. Just like the song, the lyrics are also in essence funny in a sarcastic way.

‘One Nation’ is stylewise the missing link between the uptempo thrash metal from their debut ‘Ignorance’ and the midtempo power thrash from their later second full length ‘The American Way’. Great song really. The old demosong ‘Draining you of Life’ should stylewise have been on their debut of course but fortunetaly they re-recorded it for this EP. The Black Sabbath cover ‘War Pigs’ is more than decent with Phil Rinds vocals actually being pretty damn good!

An what can I say about that briliant album cover. One of the ultimate ones in thrash metal!
The CD version also had two live tracks, being actually the best two songs from their debut (‘Death Squad’ and ‘Ignorance’). So have perfect can it be? There is no such thing as 100 points, so 99% is what I’ll give.

Surf Nicaragua” is good thrash song with that nothing-out-of-ordinary-thrash riff. The song is lyrically argumentative about making Nicarague the second Vietnam. The case is closed, but there’s still a point of U.S. Army going to those places where it doesn’t belong. Though it has a serious topic, the song isn’t too serious. The lines “If you had brought your surfboard/You could surf Nicaragua” will prove it. “One Nation” is slower tune, but speeds up temporarily in the choruses. Most albums’s second song is mostly a bit slower than the first one, and this one continues the tradition.

If a metal band would say that the band Black Sabbath hasn’t influenced it on any way, it would lie! Sacred Reich doesn’t deny that by making their own version of Sabbath-classic “War Pigs”. Their version is their own but it still can be recognized as a Sabbath song, unlike some covers fail to do. The last track, titled “Draining you of Life”, is re-recorded version of the title track of their demo. The song is overall more pauper than the other tracks. It is here to be the meter of the band’s development. Lyrics are full of clichés, what are prevented on the other tracks.

Not a bad ep, but still a nothing-out-of-ordinary-stuff. The vinyl version, which I just reviewed, lacks the live tracks

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