Year: 2019
Total Time: 55:12                               
Label: Pure Underground Records

SACRILEGE is a Heavy Metal band from the United Kingdom, formed in 1982 during the NWOBHM movement. The band released several demos in 1983 before disbanding the following year. Their founding member Bill Beadle resurrected the band in 2007, recording several songs that have been released in four albums as well as the “Ashes To Ashes” collection released in 2015. This collection was followed later that year by the band’s new album. «Six6six». In 2019, their seventh studio album, “The Court Of The Insane”, was released.

So it’s time to go back with them to the good old days of Heavy Metal. Long before the idiom was fragmented into many different and confusing genres. “The Court Of The Insane” is Heavy Metal, pure, traditional, honest, classic NWOBHM. We are talking about huge riffs, high-tone vocals and lots of solos, everything you need for head banging. All these are clear and presented to us from the very first track, “Celestial City” and continues unabated in the next one, “Lies”. The title track of the album tells us a wonderful story about the injustices of justice, “Bring Out Your Dead” is both dark and wild and a melancholy mood lurks in the background.

With many tracks exceeding 5/6 minutes, SACRILEGE manage to keep the listener’s attention, but also to combine the classic Heavy Metal sound with somewhat more modern passages. The album starts to slow down in the second half, but we still have the heavy riffs and the amazing lyrics of “Unhinged Mind”, the very beautiful “I Can Hear the Silence” and the NWOBHM finale of “Ride Free” to close the disc with 80s style.

Many reunions of old bands have taken place in the recent years and, while many of them remind us why some bands have to be forgotten, SACRILEGE is one of those bands whose revival proves to be an ornament that was unjustly buried in their time. If you love NWOBHM of the 80’s, you will definitely love this album too.

Rating: 7,5/10
Editor: Fanouris Exintavelonis
Related Link: SACRILEGE – Official Page