Interview with Rob of Sacrifice 2006

By Bradley Smith

Man it was great news to me when I heard you guys were still kicking around and your back catalog was being re-released.  Can you catch us up on what has been going on with Sacrifice lately?

Rob: Right now, we are just preparing for the show.  It is taking a while to get our chops back to where they used to be, but we are almost there.  The vibe was there immediately from the first rehearsal with Gus and I.  It felt like seeing your favorite band rehearsing and playing whatever song you wanted.  Except you’re in the band.  We had smiles on our faces the whole jam.

You guys are reuniting to play your first live show in 15 years at the Day of the Equinox II festival.  Are you nervous?  How does it feel to be back together for such an event?  What prompted you to reunite for this one concert?

Rob:  We are all pretty confident, but we are nervous as well.  It has been 15 years since the four of us have performed live together so it almost feels like our first show, only it’s in front of over 1000 people.  It feels so good to be back together for this.  We didn’t expect such an overwhelming response to one show, there are people coming from all over the world.  The respect people show Sacrifice, and bands from our era is awesome.

I think the thing that prompted us to do this was we all felt the need to.  I’m sure all of us have daydreamed about this actually taking place.  What a terrible regret it would have been to think for the rest our lives “we should have done one more show”.

Since we are talking about this reunion show, is there any possibility that it will be recorded and possible put together as some sort of DVD release? 

Rob:  It is really too early to say, we haven’t discussed it much.  It is a possibility.

Marquee Records is re-releasing all your older albums with exhaustive amounts of extras such as demo tracks and live material.  How did you get in touch with them and was it difficult finding all this old material?

Rob:  Armando Pereira from the label got in touch with me, and we chatted for about a year before Sacrifice actually signed.  His ideas of how he wanted to present the reissues were great; if anything, I doubted that Marquee could pull it off.  On the contrary, when I finally held “Torment In Fire” in my hands, it actually far surpassed even my best expectations.  Some of the bonus material was from my personal collection, but a great deal of it was found by Armando, from contacts all over the world.

It seems that there is a Resurgence of thrash, both in awareness of its importance to metal’s roots as well as bands propagating that style again.  There are lots of bands that are new and incorporate thrash into their style as well as old bands reuniting and releasing new albums, for example Exodus and Assassin.   What do you think is the driving force in this resurgence?

Rob:  I think thrash is the true essence of metal.  It is the one style that is universally accepted by all metal fans.  No metal fan hates this style.  When thrash seemed to die in the 90’s, people still held on to their old favorite bands, even though they weren’t releasing albums anymore.  I’ve said a million times, the reason thrash died was that money killed it.  Bands saw Metallica releasing ballads and thought they could do the same and get rich.  The music eventually became too watered down and didn’t have the rage it initially did.  Not every band took this path, but the ones that did destroyed it.  I think it is great now that bands are reuniting and releasing albums devoid of the crap that permeated our scene previously.  The thing I can’t believe is how knowledgeable the younger fans are about 80’s thrash.

With the atmosphere being right for the old gods recording new material, can we expect any material from Sacrifice?

Rob:  I have some songs written, but it is much too early to speculate on a new Sacrifice album.  Right now, our focus is solely on the 9/23 show.  After that we will discuss whether the corpse will remain in the ground or if it will be a victim of reanimation.

You guys have one of the most extensive websites for any band I have ever seen.  It shows a lot of care and effort went into it.  Who did you go through to start it up and how much input did you have in its creation?  Are you working on any of the social networking utilities like Myspace?

Rob: Again, this was a great job by Tatiana and Armando at Marquee.  Basically, we just let them design how they wanted, Marquee presented some strong ideas for the website and we let them go with it.  The idea to change the skin of the website with the different album covers is unique. www.sacrifice.com.br

Sacrifice also has a myspace page at www.myspace.com/sacrificecanada

In a recent interview with Fenriz of Darkthrone he stated that the Canadian Metal scene was important because it bridged the gap between the US and European scenes.  Do you think this is an accurate assessment?  What were some of your favorite bands from the Canadian scene?

Rob:  Fenriz is an expert on the 80’s stuff, and obviously a big fan of the old scene. I’ve never thought about it like that but I would say he is correct, the Canadian scene was definitely different in subtle ways.  My favorites were Slaughter, Razor, Exciter, Soothsayer. The first 3 Anvil albums were very influential to me.  There were acts that never really got a proper release like Dark Legion, Armoros, Death Militia that were great too.

How active are you in the metal scene these days?  I remember there being so many important bands from Canada back in the day.  How do you feel the death of Piggy(Voivod) affected the Canadian metal scene and yourself on a personal level?

Rob:  I still go to shows, read the metal news every day, play lots of guitar, write songs, I’m very active with metal still. 

I think the death of Piggy affected the world metal scene as much as in Canada.  He was an awesome guitar player. One of the few who had an instantly recognizable style, and is utterly irreplaceable.  We met a few times at shows, and seemed like a very laid back guy.  On a personal level, it makes me cherish my family and friends even more. Great to hear him play again on “Katorz”.

I managed to catch you guys live in Tampa with Bolt Thrower and Believer on your Soldiers of Misfortune tour and you guys put on a great performance.  Can you tell me about that tour and how it went with those touring partners?  I mean I know you guys use a lot of satanic imagery and malicious lyrical content and Believer was a Xtian band.  Did that cause friction at all?

Rob:  No way.  Honestly, Believer are one of the coolest bands alive, we had an awesome time on the road.  People seem to have this vision of what Believer are like and it is so wrong.  They are Xtian, but it’s not like they preach or anything…and surprise! They like satanic metal!  They would have a couple of beers with us after the show, and were completely regular people.  I’m not religious at all, but I don’t get in anyone’s face about their faith.  I don’t want to be preached to, so I’m not going to preach Agnostism to anyone.

Conservatism seems to be permeating the governments of the world.  If I remember correctly the Canadian recently elected the conservative party after many thought they might be defeated.  Do you follow politics at all?  How do you feel about this pervasively conservative environment we find throughout the world?

Rob: I follow politics fairly closely, mainly world politics. I like the chess games that go on with different nations.  People tend to vote conservative more often when there is fear and a need to feel protected.  It’s a frightening time in the world right now.

I am not a person who swears allegiance for life to a political party. Canada had been run by Liberals for a long time and it was time for a change.  Sometimes you need a change to balance policies out.  I don’t like to talk politics in the context of an interview because I hate hearing every musicians political views, like Bono. 

With many older fans and newer ones alike rightly imbuing Sacrifice with the status of legends or even metal gods, how do you look back on your history and see your status in retrospect?  When you think about those days what sort of feelings do those memories conjure up?

Rob:  When we recorded this stuff, I had no idea it would still hold up in 2006, and people would still be interested.  I feel proud to be part of it, and thankful to all our fans for the great support.  Most memories I have are just like the ones anyone has about their friends or brothers, but we were in a band together.

Any last words before us Soldiers of Misfortune head into battle?                  

Rob: Thanks for the interview Brad.