A Forgotten Classic

For the upcoming issue of Sweden Rock Magazine (#56, due November 11) I recently conducted a so called “Forgotten Classic” on Canadian old-school thrashers Sacrifice and their ageless “Forward to Termination” from 1987. As this article form strictly limits the space for qoutes, I’ve put the whole interview with frontman Rob Urbinati here - who's revealing the mighty Sacrifice's about to return!

Rob Urbinati back in the day #1.

First; any general comments on the album? What do you think about it today?

Rob: "This is probably the one I am most proud of. Very seldom do I go back and listen to our stuff, but once in a while I will throw this on for a spin. "

Sacrifice released four high class thrash/speed metal albums, but “Forward to Termination” seems to be the one release people still talk about to this day – why do you think? What was so special about it?

Rob: "When we started writing it, the band gathered a lot of momentum and the songs just started to write themselves. I always find that songs which are written quickly are best, everything just magically falls into place, like you somehow know where the pieces of a puzzle go. The riffs are catchy and the songs fit well together as an album."

What differed “Forward to Termination” from other thrash records at that time? I personally believe its production is a bit cleaner and that you focused more on solid songwriting rather than making an all out chaotic and raw album as, let’s say, Exodus or Dark Angel.

Rob: "Our first LP 'Torment In Fire' was pretty damn chaotic, and while I love that album, the songs weren’t very polished or involved. We were also getting much better on our instruments which played a big part. Our influences were fairly evident on “Torment In Fire”, and we wanted to establish a Sacrifice sound. We also learned that while we loved to play fast, if you do it all the time it becomes a blur. On 'Forward to Termination' we let the chaos settle for a bit with slower parts before we released the insanity again."

Who were your influences back in the day? Any non-musical influences?

Rob: "We started out being influenced by Venom, Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Exciter, Anvil, Maiden, Priest, also the newest bands of the time like Slayer and Exodus, and some hardcore like Discharge and DRI. Later on, around the writing for “Forward to Termination” we went back further to music we grew up with like Rush, Sabbath, Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple. Outside of music, horror films were very influential to my lyric writing. Songs like 'Re-Animation' or 'The Entity' were basically about the plot of those movies."

What was the atmosphere in the band like back then we you wrote and recorded the album? Can you recall?

Rob: "It felt like we were starting to be recognized for our music so the atmosphere around us was pretty intense. We were starting to understand what we were capable of with Sacrifice and we pushed each other to make each song better. The only pressure we felt was internal within the band to complete writing the album."

Was there initially a vision when creating it?

Rob: "As a band we wanted to take what was started on 'Torment In Fire', and make it better. Put more thought into the writing, how parts are put together. Our vision was really just to write the best songs we could and retain our heaviness and speed. One thing we knew would be essential to this album was the production needed to be much better. Brian Taylor, Sacrifice’s producer, booked us into U2s producers studio and it was our first experience in a professional recording studio."

How did you write your songs?

Rob: "Most the time, we would bring riffs to band practice and add upon what one of us would start. Many times, the songs came about very spontaneously at rehearsal. I would record the finished songs onto cassette tape and write lyrics at home."

Rob Urbinati back in the day #2.

Would you say “Forward to Termination” is a band effort or an individual effort?

Rob: "It was a total band effort."

Where did the recording take place?

Rob: "Brian Taylor, Sacrifice’s producer, booked us into U2s producers studio and it was our first experience in a professional recording studio. Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada."

Was there any overall lyrical concepts or themes?

Rob: "There wasn’t really an overall concept, the lyrical subject matter is pretty diverse. "

What about the album title itself, what does it refer to?

Rob: "One recurring theme with Sacrifice was how our world is deteriorating socially, morally and environmentally. Basically it refers to the way humanity behaves."

“Re-Animation” is Sacrifice’s ultimate stand-out track, according to what fans write in discussion forums, blogposts and so on. What was so special about this very song? And what is the song about?

Rob: "This is one of those songs that just came together. I remember hearing Joe and Gus jamming the main verse riff and I ran in and said 'remember that!' From there, I think we completed the song soon after. The lyrics were inspired by the movie 'Re-Animator'."

You shot a video track off of that song, can you tell me more about that?

Rob: "The idea was to keep the video looking underground by having it a grainy black and white. Our initial location was to be a church which fell through, so we ended up filming in Brian Taylor’s enormous loft apartment. The video producer John Zytaruk did a great job at editing it, we didn’t have too much of an expectation about getting airplay with it, but it ended up getting quite a bit of play on our music video station MuchMusic. If you were into metal in the 80’s in Canada, I guarantee you saw this video at least 10 times. The look of the video we saw copied by numerous bands. Very few extreme metal bands had done any videos yet, so we kind of broke new ground with it. There was no flashiness, lasers, cheesy themes, just black and white footage of a band jamming."

Which are your own personal favorite songs from that record and why?

Rob: "My favourites are:

'Terror Strikes'- really straight forward fast song with a great middle part. Lyrically, about someone snapping. Someone who has had enough and unleashes the fury.

'Afterlife' – I love Gus’ drumming in this song.

'Flames of Armageddon' - Influenced by Rush, and Mercyful Fate but really thrashing.

'The Entity' – This was the last one we wrote for the album, we were having trouble coming up with ideas and suddenly, again, this one just wrote itself.

'Light of the End' - Joe’s leads in this are awesome. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster happened around this time and was the inspiration for this one."

Anything you dislike or wish to change on the album? Song-wise, lyrically or production-wise?

Rob: "I would change nothing. Over 20 years later, metal fans still regard this as a classic so we must have done something right."

I know the album cover is just a tiny piece of a much bigger painting. What made you go with this cover? Who made it?

Rob: "The entire cover was great, but the label felt it lost too much shrunk down to album cover size. I disagreed, but they decided to use bits and pieces of it for some reason. I can’t recall the name of the artist, and I really wish we could get our hands on the original."

To this day, how much has “Forward to Termination” sold? Do you have a clue?

Rob: "I have no idea on the sales figures, but I know it was our best selling release."

How do you feel the album has aged? I’ve heard people saying it’s now dated, while others claim it sounds fresher than ever. What is your opinion?

Rob: "I listen to old Sabbath and it sounds dated, but I will always love it and actually prefer the production from back then. I am sure it sounds dated to some but I don’t consider that a bad thing. Newer thrash bands are trying to recapture the sounds from back then, and they should be commended for it. Today’s production values are shit, everything sounds the same… The same drum samples, the same quantized drum sound, the tight, gated, compressed guitar sound. Sometimes I feel like metal is getting a bit too fake in that department, I wish bands would actually mic up the drums properly, forget the click track, and create their own sound."

Sacrifice made itself quite a name in Canada and the US back in the day, but in Europe you remained virtually unknown. Why do you think?

Rob: "Our first two albums had a release in Europe, and did quite well, but we lost our Roadrunner distribution which really hurt our popularity in Europe."

What are you doing these days? Involved in any music?

Rob: "These days I am pretty much a regular dad kind of guy. Since our reunion show in 2006, we have been writing a new album which is almost complete and should be recorded by the end of 2008. The songs are fast, heavy, we are really happy with how they are progressing. The vibe is similar to 'Forward To Termination'… It has elements from all our albums really. One thing I will say is that it is definitely recognizable as Sacrifice. The album title will be 'The Ones that I Condemn'."

Sacrifice back in the day. Left to right: Rob Urbinati, vocals & guitars; Scott Watts, bass; Joe Rico, guitars; Gus Pynn, drums.