SACRIFICED, THE - 2012 (2012, Roxx) Elite prog power metal
The Sacrificed take the minimal approach to promoting themselves - So it's a good job that Roxx Records are doing their publicity. The Sacrificed are based in Florida and have been together since 2005. They released an independent demo album `The Da Vinci Hoax' in 2007. After signing to Roxx they have released `2012' in the spring of 2010. Whilst their marketing compares their sound to early Queensryche and Sacred Warrior, it's slightly misleading as they are more like Warlord and Agent Steel.
Eli Prinsen (lead vocals & guitar), Johnny Bowder (guitar) and Jay Williams ( drums) have created a mixture of power metal and progressive metal. After a bizarrely constructed intro of a radio playing a pop song, the sound of a typewriter and alarm sirens ..... they launch into `2012' with its prophetic and apocalyptic theme " December twenty first two thousand and twelve / Two thousand and twelve / Jesus warned about false prophets and their evil schemes / Nostradamus quatrains - Bible code matrices / Oh it's so plain to see - we're just searching for some way / To give our lives some meaning / Intrigued and mystified with the unknown / We want life to matter more to us than mere flesh and bone / We have eternal souls and Jesus is the key / The only pathway to immortality". The vocal style is high pitched throughout, which bears comparison to Geoff Tate of Queensryche.
`No Promise for Tomorrow' is about making the right decision now, as you cannot change your mind after you are dead. In the afterlife you are stuck with the choice made on earth. Traditional metal riffs, shrill vocals and lyrics based on the book of Revelations give `The Return' a sound close to a Saint track "And I saw the beast and his armies and the kings of the earth / Gathering together to make war against Him who sat on the horse / The beast and the false prophet were cast alive into the lake of fire / The rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the Mouth of Him / who sat on the throne".
The mid-section contains modern hard rock `In Heaven' and an acoustic guitar ballad `I Concede'. There are further hard rock tracks and I rapidly began to lose interest. It was only saved by a stomping cover of Deliverance's `Slay The Wicked'.
