Customer Reviews

Sacrifice

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No, this band is NOT a Metal pioneer. Their music is WAY too laid back to even be considered being called hard rock or Metal. Lead instruments include the organ, flute, sax, acoustic guitar, some violins, and what sounds like a trumpet. No heavy guitars to be found anywhere, so don't listen to anyone who compares them to Black Sabbath. I suppose their association with heavy metal is most likely a result of their strongly occultic and mystical lyrics dealing with witchcraft, diabolism, reincarnation and necromancy. So this obviously isn't something to play at a church social. But if you listen closely and with an open mind, you'll find that it's really a cautionary tale about the danger of playing with black magic.
The album opens with the atmospheric "In Ancient Days" complete with a creepy organ intro. The song is very jazzy, yet at the same time quite dark and mysterious, with a dark tinted fairy-tale atmosphere. "Way to Power" is a great tune filled with subtly dark and dreamy soundscapes to match the equally arcane lyrics dealing with magical grimoirs. Next follows the infamous "Come To The Sabbat" which actually got some radio play. It opens with a spooky chant and flute and moves into a sort of upbeat medieval/renaissance folk inspired song that is diabolically infectious. The chorus, which is actually a mantra-like chant, "Come, come, come to the Sabbat. Come to the Sabbat, Satan's there!" makes it hard to believe that this song was allowed to be played on the radio in 1970. "Conjuration" is a moody dark piece with a trumpet (I think) playing the sad lead melody. "Seduction" gets a bit tedious for me, and it's really the only downside to this album. It's a ballad with some uninspired jamming thrown in. "Attack of the Demon" is a great Jefferson Airplane-esque song about a sorcerer condemned to hell for his sins. And the energetic title track which features some killer flute and organ soloing, ends the album. Overall this is a highly enjoyable album with the exception of "Seduction" which I usually skip over. A must for prog fans, and anyone interested in dark music or in obscure novelties. Worth every penny you pay for it.

Black Widow might have survived longer and with a serious cult following if they had stuck to the theme expressed so perfectly on Sacrifice. Whatever reasons they had for backing away from their controversial subject matter relegated them to a relatively short career and obscurity in the annals of rock music. Sacrifice itself is a seamless album, at least thematically. It's only fair to say that if you fear for your immortal soul or the idea of devil worship set to music disturbs you, move along and forget you ever heard of this album. However, if you can get past the mock seriousness of it, Sacrifice is quirky, funny, and propelled by some really good and interesting music. Parts of it are cluttered with a little too much instrumentation, but overall it's a well produced album and a significant document of late 60s/early 70s free form rock.

Sacrifice, first released in 1970 on CBS, was the first album by this prog band under the Black Widow name (the band went under the previous name of Pesky Gee prior to Sacrifice with female vocalist Kay Garret and released an album called Exclamation Mark in 1969). Anyway, Sacrifice really seems to be liked by black metal fans everywhere, simply because the lyrics have heavy satanic themes. But this is a public service announcement: if you're a black metal fan, don't buy Sacrifice expecting another Black Sabbath. You won't find heavy guitar riffs, you won't hear lots of fuzz bass. In fact I hear mostly acoustic guitar, and some lead electric played in that late '60s style. More often than not, the flute, sax, and Hammond organ dominate and very often the guitar isn't used. On the other hand, if you're a diehard prog rock enthusiast, like myself, and you like bands such as Jethro Tull, Cressida, Gracious, and Beggars Opera (particularly "The Witch" and "Madame Doubtfire" off Pathfinder), you're sure to like this, if you aren't bothered by the lyrics, that is. This is the kind of album you wouldn't want to play around kids, especially the chanting you hear on the hit "Come to the Sabbat". And speaking of that cut, I am surprised that was a hit over in the UK simply because of the content and any American DJ attempting to play that song would probably be without a job if he even thinks of playing that song. None of the songs on this album are particularly complex (since many prog fans like their music complex) and tends to the song-oriented side (as typical of British prog at that time). Some of my favorites are "In Ancient Days", "Way to Power", "Attack of the Demon" and the title track. "Conjuration" is pretty interesting for its bolero beat and some spooky spoken dialog. Black Widow did not endear themselves to the Christian fundamentalists over in Britain and there were stories of priests waving crosses and bibles at their concerts to try to lure the audience away from that music. Eventually the band turned away from the satanic image and turned to more typical prog rock lyrics, so if you buy their next two releases, the album simply called "Black Widow" from 1971 and "Black Widow III" from 1972, you won't find much in the way of satanic lyrics.By the way, the recently released Return to the Sabbat was actually an original 1969 recording of Sacrfice with vocalist Kay Garret. That version collected dust and wasn't heard for nearly 30 years. The band re-recorded Sacrifice without Garret and is the version people got to hear back in 1970.So in conclusion, Sacrifice is a good example of what prog rock was all about in Britain back in 1970, might not be the best album I've heard, but it gives reminders how prog was once like, rather than bland '80s pop pretending to be prog like Asia. So if you're curious of how satanic prog music is like, give Sacrifice a try.

Maybe i'm getting old and jaded (probably both!) but there was a time around 1970 when music was daring and exciting and bands were signed because they were good and not really marketable. My thing was to browse around second hand shops and pick up obscure albums dirt cheap (some were wonderful investments) i picked up great albums by skin alley, sameti, odin etc, etc and this magnificent album by Black Widow. There was a furore i recall about their stage act (i believe 'sacrifice' included semi-naked girls being er..sacrificed) but regardless (and i'm sure like black sabbath it was all tongue in cheek) the music was top notch and Kip Trevor is one of the great unsung vocalists check out the title track and his scatting on 'attack of the demon' and Jim Gannon writes great catchy songs with good hooks. He excelled himself on the second album 'maybe now-2' Instrumentally the interplay with keyboard and flute is constantly inventive and the lengthy 'sacrifice' gives everyone a chance to stretch out(special mention the great drumming) they even go cheesy on 'conjuration'. Really, not a track is wasted and it has an atmosphere of its own. Great cover as well!. Oh for those record buying oppertunities again before everyone got greedy and charged a fortune.

No, not metal-although the influence on metal is very obvious. Prog rock could mean big dull productions like ELP, or occasionally, powerful things like this. The flute and extra percussion are color-they give the music a feel of ancient civilization. The arrangements are not particularly complex, and the story of Magic, satanism, and reincarnation is very upfront. take Merciful Fate, Venom, or Slayer and play their music acoustically-that's a close approximation of what this sounds like.

this first album by Black Widow demonstrated the kind of So-called satanic music that they pioneered. Often mistaken for Black Sabbath, the music was entirely different...more organ, flute and sax than fuzz bass. This was their only Satanic album changing because of negative pressure to more of a light progressive band with their following albums. A good album of its kind.

I'm in my early 40's - I'm not afraid to admit it! So this album is placed firmly in my early teen memory as a classic of its kind. Of course, there were all sorts of rumors about audiences taking all their clothes off during live performances etc. But the album itself is really quite marvellous. Thank goodness someone had the wisdom to reissue it on CD, since for years it was only possible to find overplayed vinyl copies in record shops.
Oh, and my best mate's Uncle was the drummer!

This is the Album that Started it all, Metal wise anyway, Black Sabbath was infuenced by them, Diamaond Head Nearly Ripped them Off, this is the first EVER "Satanic" album, this and the Band COVEN Spread the way for bands from Sabbath to Celtic Frost to Bathory to Mayhem and all Dark Bands in between, Musically its early sixties Acid Rock with lots of influance from Classical music mostly Bach and Beethoven Wonderfull uses of Horns and some Very Awesome Piano work an Absulute MUST for any true Metal collection or for anyone who like Johns Children and The Seeds or Early Jefferson Airplane and that Sound

Worth having it as a reference - that's why I bought it. Ideas & thoughts are more interesting than music (and much more than singing). Interesting as a piece from the 70s. Has nothing to do with "Black Sabbath", and doesn't even come close - don't trust the editorials, adverts and reviews (the band started its life as pretty uninspiring Pesky Gee - Exclamation Mark). On the other hand, get the 3rd and 4th albums - you won't regret it.
"Black Widow" was one of the first bands to try to cash in on occult, witchcraft and black magick subjects - pre-dated by "Coven" (Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls) and "Zior" (Zior.

'The group were pioneers of dark metal...' WTF? Do all the reviewers who Amazon selects for their product descriptions actually listen to the CDs they write about? Just to hammer it home to stop people mistakenly buying this thinking it's something like Black Sabbath, or early death metal, the only connection between metal, Sabbath and this band is the band's name and the song titles. Electric guitars play a small role in this band's music, and guitar solos are few and far between. The organ is far more prominent, and there are even brass instruments (their only mistake in my opinion). This is competent early 70s jazzy progressive rock but with satanic-based song titles and themes. It's great if you like that kind of music, although the lyrics and song titles have probably put many people off from giving the album a good listen, but metalheads will no doubt find this deadly boring. However, I must disagree with those that hate this album. It must surely be a big disappointment to find that what looked like a lost Black Sabbath album turns out to be folky jazz with horns. But actually, this album has atmosphere, often generated by the dark organ playing that plays the role of the electric guitar on this album. There's a bit of tasty wah-wah guitar on one or two tracks, but more like standard blues-rock playing than anything like Tony Iommi. I would like this album even more if there were no brass instruments - I've always hated them in any hard music, or music trying to create a serious atmosphere. In jazz rock they are very important, but I could have done without them on this album. So if you like progressive rock, you may be surprised how good this is. These were not bandwagon-jumpers without a clue, but competent musicians who'd already released a semi-decent album in 1969 as Pesky Gee. On the other hand, if you like metal or are looking for more Sabbath, more than likely you'll hate this with a passion.