COMING IN FROM THE COLD: FROM LEFT: JOE RICO, ROB URBINATI, GUS PYNN, SCOTT WATTS

Thrash. Say the word to any veteran metalhead and memories of Slayer, Megadeth, Cliff Burton–era Metallica, patches sewn onto the backs of jean jackets, pentagrams drawn with Sharpies, the Bay Area scene and exceptionally pointy guitars come flooding back. But for some Torontonians, it evokes only one name: Sacrifice.

A legendary local outfit, Sacrifice burned their mark into the thrash scene during the genre’s mid-1980s heyday with two essential albums, Torment in Fire and Forward to Termination, before weathering the rise of grunge in the early ’90s with another pair of releases including their final statement, Apocalypse Inside, for iconic imprint Metal Blade records. And then Sacrifice went silent.

Sixteen years later, the band’s classic lineup has reunited to release The Ones I Condemn. It’s an impressive collection of pure-blooded thrash metal that remains true to the Sacrifice legacy, and yet sounds entirely contemporary. And now that one of their early influences, Slayer, is enjoying nearly universal acclaim for their old-school masterpiece, World Painted Blood, and fellow Canadian metallers Voivod as well as newly Oscar-worthy Torontonians Anvil are finally gaining mainstream attention, there couldn’t have been a better time for Sacrifice to resume their campaign of shred.

Sacrifice’s story is not unlike those of Voivod and Anvil. When they began playing together back in the early ’80s, speed metal (as thrash was then known) was entirely new to this city. “Metal bands in Toronto — there was us, and then really not much to go see, other than Anvil,” says guitarist/singer Rob Urbinati from his Toronto home. “When we started playing live, our first show was opening up for an old band of Sebastian Bach [glam rockers Kid Wikkid], and it didn’t really fit well.”

Like the California thrashers before them, Sacrifice drew upon hardcore punk for inspiration and underground camaraderie, frequenting the legendary Carlton Street club Larry’s Hideaway (now a patch of grass in Allan Gardens) to check out everything from local punks Direct Action and Sudden Impact to metal-scene mainstay King Diamond’s Mercyful Fate. “The first time I went to a punk show with [guitarist Joe Rico], we were the only two guys with long hair in the place,” Urbinati recalls. “We got to know everybody soon enough. More people who were listening to early Metallica and Slayer started going to hardcore shows and vice versa.”

And while Sacrifice was able to ride this wave of heavy music — touring the US and even getting regular airplay on MuchMusic — in the end it was thrash metal’s popularity that did them in. As Metallica became one of the biggest bands on the planet with the success of 1991’s self-titled black album, heavy music fans probed for darker, more brutal music in the metal underground, eventually embracing death metal as the new norm.

Urbinati says that because of personnel changes and the public’s lack of interest in thrash, the band felt like “we weren’t making progress any more and we just decided to call it quits.” And while all four original members continued playing music in some capacity, there were fewer and fewer opportunities to see each other, let alone think about playing together again. It took local promoter Noel Peters to finally convince Urbinati that maybe they should reunite for a show at the Opera House — a gig that ultimately led to The Ones I Condemn.

Despite the confidence exuded on their new record — Urbinati and Rice can still shred like it’s 1987 — the road back has been a tentative one for Sacrifice. Before playing that first gig three years ago, Urbinati admits “there was a lot of rust on us. The first time the four of us got in a room together we were kind of worried about how long it would take us to get tight. But after we’d done about six songs, we thought, ‘we could play tonight.’”  

The band is still taking baby steps; their co-headlining show with Propaghandi in Winnipeg two weeks ago was their first show in a year and a half, and only their third since reforming in 2006. “Right now, we feel like we are probably the tightest we’ve ever been, to be honest,” says Urbinati. “[But] it’s not like we’re a touring band. We play so rarely that when we go on stage we just treat it like it’s our last show.”

While they do plan on playing more in the New Year in support of The Ones I Condemn and their reissued early albums, Urbinati harbours no delusions about the resurgence of thrash, or even of Sacrifice. “I don’t read into things much. Some band will come along and people will stop listening to metal again,” he says. “But there will always be an underground for this music. Every once in a while it will lift up and go a little bit above ground, and then sink back down again. But there will always be people that will keep it alive. And I’m one of them.”