March 2021 Feature Release – The Pit Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Pit has been nominated by Sonny. It's 1985's classic debut album from punky Birmingham-based thrash metal outfit Sacrilege entitled "Behind The Realms Of Madness".

https://metal.academy/releases/8919

My relationship with "Behind The Realms Of Madness" goes right back to my tape trading days but it's not an album that I return to all that often to be honest. I certainly enjoy it whenever I do but I wouldn't say that it commands return visits out of me. The production is very much in the rough 'n' ready hardcore punk tradition with the drums being very high in the mix & the guitars a bit too far back but this fuzzy DYI approach kinda works for Sacrilege here as it gives the album an authenticity that's quite important to the end result. I really enjoy Tam's unusually aggressive female vocal delivery too as she simultaneously creates a point of difference & gives the music the required surge of energy.

Musically, "Behind The Realms Of Madness" has always been categorized as a thrash metal & crust punk hybrid & that's a very accurate description in my opinion. For that reason it's always seemed strange to me that it's never been referred to as crossover thrash given the intent of that term. Perhaps it's due to the fact that the two styles don't actually cross over all that often. In fact, when you take a close look at the six individual tracks you'll find that three of them fall into thrash territory while the other three sound more like straight-up crust. Given that knowledge, I guess it makes sense for a site like RYM to keep the tags separate so that the release appears in searches on both subgenres but for Metal Academy I'd prefer that it was referred to as crossover thrash so that people can clearly see that it's not your standard thrash record & has a significant hardcore component.

I guess the main reason I don't rate "Behind The Realms Of Madness" as the underground classic that so many of my peers seem to is the generic nature of a lot of the riffs. I mean there's definitely a "thrash riffs for dummies" feel to some of this material & I have to admit that I find the more aggressive hardcore based material to be a touch stronger. I also think that some of Andy Baker's beats are a little bouncy & punky for my liking. Thankfully an authentic underground 80's metal atmosphere is always in effect which does a good job at combatting the flaws but I don't believe that I've ever really been able to see Sacrilege's debut as anything more than a reasonably enjoyable crossover release despite it's significant influence on bands like Bolt Thrower, Unseen Terror & Napalm Death. For me Sacrilege didn't peak until their 1987 follow-up release "Within the Prophecy".

For fans of Hellbastard, Détente & early Onslaught.

3.5/5

P.S. The album cover is pretty fucking bad ass, isn't it?

The only version of this album that I could find was the thirty year anniversary remastered edition, so I might not be getting the full understanding/appreciation for this album as others here might.

Following the rise of D-beat in the UK, it was only a matter of time before that sound was developed. Sacrilege represents that simplistic songwriting alongside some of the heavier thrashing riffage coming out of the US through Slayer, Exodus and boPossessed. And if that sounds like something that sparks your fancy, I can admit that Behind the Realms of Madness is a great bonding of the two, in addition to serving as a true gateway between hardcore punk and thrash metal at the time.

However, when I went on my deep dive into the roots of 80s hardcore punk a few years ago, I have to admit that D-beat was my least favourite of the subgenres that I found. While the aggression was at an all time high, the songwriting took a significant backseat. And unfortunately, this album suffers a lot in the same way. These songs are very long and have no growth to warrant their runtimes; an issue that Discharge understood with See Nothing Hear Nothing Say Nothing three years prior. Not to mention the fact that you would be hard pressed to hear anything that resembles a bass line on this album. And the reverb effect in the vocals actively diminish the DIY sound that is so synonymous with early punk in general.

This album made me feel empty. This is the kind of album I expect visual arts students to play after lecturing me about "post-modernism"; about how uninspired hook driven music like Black Flag, Bad Brains and Minor Threat were. This album might have life, character and passion, but I cannot remember a single goddamned thing about it. It's great for the mosh pit, but worthless beyond that space.

5/10

I am a huge fan of d-beat, particularly local heroes Discharge (I live in the north of the decaying corpse of the North Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent, the town that spewed forth the punk legend genre progenitors). Sacrilege took the aggression and diy ethic of Discharge's best work and married it to the aggression and heaviness of thrash to produce a vital and immediate album of the kind that really makes me feel alive. You can keep all your technical proficiency and sterile songwriting, underground albums like this that feel like they come from the gut and with which I can make some kind of connection are, for me, what I seek most in metal music. Tam's vocals are great - I love aggressive female vocals and she is, unfortunately, one of the very few female thrash vocalists, which is another big plus for this album. This is a savage, primal, middle-finger-to-the-man type of album that we hear so few of nowadays.
I agree with Daniel's assertion that, for the purposes of Metal Academy, the album should be classed as crossover thrash despite not being what is traditionally considered such, because the punk elements are so integral to it that it needs to be differentiated from straight-up thrash metal.
And, as I've stated before elsewhere, I can't believe for one minute that Kurt Cobain had never heard Shadow of Mordor before writing Nevermind's Negative Creep.

5/5