Live Review: Sacred Reich – Camden Underworld, London
8th August 2023
Support: Damnation's Hammer, Hidden Intent
Words & Photos: Jacob Schwar
Tonight was to be the 9th night of Sacred Reich’s aptly titled Summer Of Love Tour across Europe, consisting of some headline dates and festival appearances including this year’s much anticipated edition of Bloodstock Festival! The crowd for tonight was as expected, mostly older gentlemen or ‘veteran thrashers’ as I like to call them who most likely saw Sacred Reich long before I was even a ‘twinkle in my old man’s eye’. Though it was especially nice to see a healthy turnout in younger fans all wearing battle jackets and engaging in the circle pits, in a way a pleasant sign that the ‘thrash scene’ is alive and well!
Kicking off tonight in style were Aussie thrashers Hidden Intent warming us up with some tight thrash metal all the way from down-under with this being their first time playing in London. The band were in fact a trio and though I thought they could have done with an extra rhythm guitar, they still pulled off a furiously groovy thrash sound which was a remarkable as their aren’t many thrash trio’s about! Songs such as the ferocious ‘Breaking Point’ and the almost foreboding ‘Dead End Destiny’ demonstrated that Hidden Intent are a modern thrash band to check out if your like thrash with a dose of angst and sincerity. What was great though was to how jolly and jovial the band were, smiling and joking throughout their relatively short set, it was clear they were happy to be here, at one point guitarist Phil Bennet even ran off stage to join the mosh pit with his guitar in hand!
Up next and all the way from Lancashire were Damnation's Hammer, submitting tonight’s crowd to a more darker and doomy performance which was a welcome surprise for a big doom metal fan such as myself! Wasting no time they kicked straight into the track ‘Temple of the Descending Gods’ and I was already reeling from the wall of sound, these guys were loud! Following up with the sludgey groove-laden ‘Sutter Crane’ and ‘Outpost 31’ with its Saxon-esque riffs, these were both two new tracks soon to be released on the bands next full length and I have to say they came across marvellously live.
Damnation's Hammer have a uniquely traditional flair to their sound reminding me instantly of classic doom bands such Trouble and St Vitus but with some added modern influence perhaps from a band like Grand Magus. They would demonstrate these influences on the final track ‘Hammers of War’ with its chuggy guitars which got more than a few heads banging, on the whole I feel like the crowd may have misunderstood this band slightly, perhaps they were just a bit too slow or not thrash enough for the die-hard thrashers in the audience, none the less I was impressed!
It was now that time of the night, up next on the stage were thrash legends Sacred Reich who walked out on stage to a colossal roar of applause before playing straight into ‘The American Way’ with which the pit came alive! Following that up with a couple tracks ‘Manifest Reality’ and ‘Divide & Conquer’ both from their most recent release Awakening (2019) which sounded straight from the classic 80’s era of this band, watching guitarist Joey Radziwill play with such enthusiasm on these tracks especially was breath-taking!
The band truly were on fire, so much energy and showmanship was on display with Sacred Reich tonight, in all honesty I have my doubts when bands re-unite after such as long period, some fail to deliver in my opinion but this wasn’t the case at all with these guys much to my surprise. At the helm was no other than founding member Phil Rind who provided some excellent stage humour as well as words of wisdom on love, caring and understanding whilst calling out a rather enthusiastic heckler though all in good spirits of course, at one point he reminisced about the first time Sacred Reich played London with some in the crowd shouting ‘I was there!’ which was quite heart-warming.
They’d pull out some absolute discog classic’s for this show such as ‘Who’s to Blame’, ‘One Nation’ and ‘Death Squad' but for me the highlight was ‘Ignorance’, it was one of the first thrash songs I ever heard and loved, to finally hear it live was a special moment, I think the crowd agreed as the pit was quite chaotic this point in the set. However, despite this no Sacred Reich set would be complete without ‘Surf Nicaragua’ which was their final song allowing the young thrashers in the pit one more chance to go mental and attempt to crowd surf as the song promotes, a rather fitting way to end such an energetic and thrilling performance with some good old thrash metal chaos.
All photo credits: Jacob Schwar / Darkness Before Dawn
