Sound: The sound of Sacrifice is mysterious. You do not know what is about to happen. They have a very occult sound on this album. To me it is taking bands like Jethro Tull and Lucifer's Friend with the heaviness of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. The musician that stands out the most is flautist Clive Jones with his mystical way of playing the flute and saxophone. You may wonder "Wouldn't it be a little out of place to put flutes and saxophones into heavy music?" The answer in Clive's case is NO. The only reason they never became very famous however is because A: This album was released on the same day as Simon & Garfunkil's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" B: They were always confused with Black Sabbath, & Black Sabbath kind of stole their glory C: they were so satanic/extreme in their music, that record stores stopped carrying their albums. // 9
Lyrics and Singing: Now the lyrics are not for the easily offended. I'll just tell you bluntly. The entire album is a concept album of a satanic ritual to conjure the she-demon of love and sex, Astaroth, and at the end they sacrifice her human form to Satan. This was also they're stage-show, they acted out every single lyric, even up to stripping Astaroth naked and sacrificing her to Satan. Again this was 1969-1970, You can imagine how much backlash they got because of the content of the album. The most famous track on the album is the infamous "Come to the Sabbat." It has one of the most haunting chorus' ever created in the history of music. Kip sings in a chanting voice "Come, come, come to the Sabbat, come to the Sabbat, Satan's there." The lyrics are straight out of the occult books, so it's not the bullshit satanic lyrics you can here in Cradle of Filth songs. // 10
Impression: Over all the album gets a 9. I love it's sound and lyric content, but it's sad that they were lost in time basically. My personal favorites of the album are: "In Ancient Days," "Come to the Sabbat," and "Sacrifice." I love the atmosphere it gives off, for fans of Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, and Coven. They were forced to drop they satanism soon after the tour, and after 3 more albums, the band broke up. Clive Jones (flute) and Clive Box (drums) went on to form the New Wave of British "Horror" Metal band, Agony Bag. Bassist Geoff Griffith went on to form the Prog group, Moving Fingers. guitarist Jim Gannon went on to serve a stint with Alice Cooper, formed the band Sherbet, and now lives in Austrailia. Black Widow is reuniting with Clive Jones, Geoff Griffith, Kay Garret (original vocalist), Paolo Apollo Negri (Keyboardist of Wicked Minds), John Culley, and Romeo Challanger. for the first time in over 30 years, so hopefully they bring back the ritual stage show. // 9
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