Reviews list for Sacred Reich - Surf Nicaragua (1988)

Phoenix-based thrash metal four-piece Sacred Reich is a band that holds a fair amount of nostalgic value for me these days if I’m being honest. Ben & I discovered them together after purchasing Sacred Reich's 1990 “The American Way” sophomore album on cassette shortly after release & finding it to be an absolute riff-fest. I’d work my way back through their first couple of records via the tape trading scene shortly afterwards & found both to offer a similar level of enjoyment but Sacred Reich’s time in the sun would be fleeting with my taste moving into ever more extreme territories through the early-90's & their bubble well & truly bursting thanks to a couple of pretty ordinary albums during the middle of that decade. I returned to their 1987 debut album “Ignorance” a year or two back though & was pleased to find that it had well & truly maintained its appeal & that experience wet my appetite for some further revision, especially given that Sacred Reich’s 1988 “Surf Nicaragua” E.P. seems to be held up on some sort of pedestal these days which surprises me given that I’d always regarded it as the least significant of Sacred Reich’s three essential releases. It's fair to say that I’ve been more than a little intrigued by this phenomenon & have subsequently been planning to investigate just what it is that gives it such a widespread appeal for some time now.

“Surf Nicaragua” is pretty much the epitome of the “E.P.” as it brings together one novelty track (i.e. one that you probably wouldn’t want on your serious thrash album), one brand new song, a cover version & a fresh recording of a track from the band's early days. The CD version (which is what I’ve always been associated with & will be reviewing here) also includes a couple of live cuts taken from Sacred Reich's debut album. Sounds like the classic E.P. now, doesn’t it? Well, it is but very few of these sort of releases are as successful at such an undertaking. "Surf Nicaragua" is produced by Metal Blade Records’ house engineer Bill Metoyer, a man that’s been involved with any number of noteworthy metal releases over the years, having produced highly praised records such as Trouble’s “Psalm 9" & “The Skull”, Flotsam & Jetsam’s “No Place For Disgrace” & Helstar’s “A Distant Thunder” & “Nosferatu” as well as having engineered some of the greatest metal releases of all time. The result is a significant step up from the Brian Slagel-produced “Ignorance” which suffered a little from production issues & this gave “Surf Nicaragua” a nice platform to work off. Sacred Reich certainly sound like a highly professional, well-oiled machine here too it has to be said with the instrumentalists all working together as a tightly cohesive unit that had paid their dues & were ready to take the next step in their careers after the obligatory fast & raw debut album.

I’m not sure of the timing around the two releases but I’d be very surprised if “Surf Nicaragua” wasn’t linked to M.O.D.’s “Surfin’ M.O.D.” E.P. in some way as it would seem to me to be too coincidental to have two surf-inspired American thrash releases seeing the light of day in the same year. Sacred Reich make a much better fist of their effort though as the title track is actually a pretty decent crossover thrash tune. Yes, it does include some silly references to old surf rock tunes but they only make up a small portion of what is otherwise a pretty enjoyable (if fairly innocuous) opening to the record. Things pick up in a major way from there though with brand new song “One Nation” being some of Sacred Reich’s best work. It starts off in pretty solid fashion before hitting on a fantastic chug riff midway through the song & then milking it for all it’s worth. There are some brilliant references to late 80’s Slayer in there & the guitar solos & the way the rhythm section accentuates the riffs are nothing short of top notch. While the cover version of Black Sabbath’s classic “War Pigs” may not touch the original or the amazing Faith No More version from the following year, I can’t deny that it’s still a very strong inclusion. It probably helps that it’s my favourite Sabbath track & an all-timer for me for heavy metal overall but it’s very well done nonetheless. Where it’s lacking in comparison to the other two major versions is in Phil Rind’s vocal limitations, the fact that it’s slightly sped up & a little looseness in the performances through the middle of the song. The rehashed “Draining You of Life” is a pretty decent speed metal-inspired thrasher which is a little guilty of “Show No Mercy”-era Slayer plagiarism given that the main riff seems to have been borrowed from “Black Magic” but I can let that go in the interest of having a good ol' drunken mosh. The two live cuts are both high-quality too (particularly a very solid rendition of “Death Squad”) so there’s not a weak moment to be found here.

You know what? I think I can now see why “Surf Nicaragua” is held in such high regard because, despite it not ever really trying to flow like a proper album, there’s some damn fine thrash metal included here which has made for a highly energetic partner to my afternoon walk with my newborn. I wouldn’t suggest that it’s a better record than “Ignorance” or “The American Way” but I’d be very surprised if fans of high-quality thrash metal acts like Xentrix, Vio-lence or Evildead don’t get plenty out of it. Hell, I’d even go so far as to say that it holds up really well as a thrash release in its own right so I highly recommend that our The Pit clan members check it out with an open mind.

While I find Sacred Reich's debut album Ignorance to be decent enough, it wasn't until The American Way where the band really got their stuff together. With the Surf Nicaragua EP sitting nicely between the two, I wasn't exactly sure which end of the spectrum this would sit. As it turns out, this is a bit of a mixed bag really, and not really a release I will reach for all that often.

With two new tracks, a cover, a re-recorded demo track and two live tracks, this is typical EP fare. The two new tracks are not all that amazing, with Surf Nicaragua ruining some perfectly good riffs by utilizing hugely recognisable and inappropriate surfing music midway through and One Nation not really doing anything to grab the listener. The cover is Black Sabbath's War Pigs, which the band also released as a promo vinyl. It's a poor version of a classic track, and one that would be completely outdone by Faith No More a year later.

Strangely enough, my favourite track off the EP is the re-recorded demo track Draining You of Life with its shredding riffs and supercharged energy. Finally, there are the live tracks which don't really add anything much to the original versions off Ignorance. Death Squad is certainly one of the better tracks off that album though, so its inclusion isn't a complete waste. This EP is a merely average release and doesn't really do enough to demand inclusion in any but the most loyal Sacred Reich fan's collection.