Customer Reviews

Sacrifice

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When Sacrifice came out in 1994, most Numan fans breathed a collective sigh of relief. Sacrifice was the first Numan album in years that did not have the Janet Jacksonesque dance music with the domineering female background vocalists. It followed Machine & Soul which many fans consider the lowest point in his career. I can find many excellent tracks off all of Numan's albums from his dance era (even his collaboration with Bill Sharpe), but I was still glad to hear his new sound when I first heard Sacrifice. This album is all Numan. He sings all the vocals and plays all the instruments so it is filled with synthesizers and drum machines with no saxophones or annoying female vocalists. The music is very dark and heavy. Most of the lyrics are about questioning God's existence or benevolence, which caused some controversy but, for me, makes for very powerful stuff.

On first listen, the tracks seem to run together with the omnipresent drum machine but, after several plays, songs begin to stand out. Sacrifice was the first Numan release in years on which I find no weak tracks. There are no instrumental fillers either. A lot of thought and care was put into each track as Numan took his music into a new direction. My favorite track is "A Question of Faith" of which there is a cool remix on the compilation The Mix followed by the hardest rocker on the disc "Love & Napalm." "You Walk in My Soul" is a dark, romantic ballad that a friend of mine actually wants played at his wedding. I don't know if it's that romantic, but it is nice. Sacrifice is also the album in Numan's new dark period that does not adopt a complete industrial sound. Most of his material after this album (especially Pure and the new tracks on Hybrid) takes this new style to a darker and heavier level with iniquitous screaming that may be a little much to listen to on a regular basis. Sacrifice stayed on the fine line towards industrial Nine Inch Nails style music brilliantly. I recommend purchasing this edition with the excellent "Metal Beat" demo. "Pray Like God" is not a filler B-side, but it is not as good as the rest of the album. It's rather bland and repetitive. For those who gave up on Numan when he started going techno dance, your missing out on some incredible stuff. Check out Sacrifice and then Exile and his latest material.

In the late 80's and early 90's, the name, Gary Numan, has become synonymous with the term "One Hit Wonder." In his native England, Numan has continued to perform and release at least one (sometimes 3!!!) albums every year. For better or worse, each album has shown his development as a unique musician, showcasing a variety of styles and sounds. Unfortunately, Numan was all but forgotten in America.

There has been a bit of a resurgace lately with Gary touring the US for the first time in 16 years. Cleopatra Records has picked him up and have been rereleasing his whole catalog little by little.

"Sacrifice" is a remarkable album. Dark and brooding in its theme, it is Gary's best album to date. Songs such as "Bleed," "You Walk In My Soul," "Deadliner," and "A Question of Faith" are standouts. If you like Gary Numan or want to be re-introduced to his music, this is a good album to start with. Welcome back, Gary!

This CD fell into my lap under strange circumstances and under a different title.

It may be Numan's "Sacrifice" in the UK but in the States it's entitled "Dawn" and it pays homage to the artistic magic of Joseph Michael Linsner, creator of the transcendant comic book goddess Dawn. Dawn, herself, is unforgettable....a luminous and yet sometimes dark bit of conjuring....and so is the album dedicated to her.

It's unfortunate that in the United States, Numan is hardly remembered beyond the 80's hit "Cars". And given the fact that he's evolved from that particular pop standard to this sort of dreamy darkness, you've got to wonder what lies between. This much I can tell you, whether you've been a fan all along, a current one or one who just happened to stumble over this delicious body of work by accident...you won't be disappointed. It's driving....much more than just industrial dance...a taste of Goth and even a bit haunted. You can forgive Numan for the occasional murmurs and muttering because it only makes the music all the more grittier and in some instances even darkly romantic. I cannot possibly list all the things that I find so amazing and beautiful about this album so I'll share a few and trust me, with gorgeous lyrics like the ones found in the song "Desire"....'Is this your mercy or sacrifice? No absolution if you come for me'... or the driving rhythm on "Question Of Faith"....'They kneel down, Praise God, shout Allelujah, lift up their eyes when they pray- When children kill children, don't it make them wonder? Don't it make them question their faith?' As you can see, choosing favorites off this album isn't an easy task but I've managed to narrow it down to two selections just to give you a taste.

It is impossible to hear "Bleed" and not somehow find yourself moving to it. It's hypnotic in it's rhythm... the lulling drone of Numan's humming leading the lyrics through a web of sound. It is gorgeous.

And then, there is "Seed Of A Lie". This song is an apparition- haunted. You are swept in by the tragic moan of keyboards- Numan's gift, it would seem. His voice is conjuring the spell...the memory of everything that could have been perfect but somehow went terribly wrong...the memories left will only be the unfortunate ones... 'Like your shadow I will haunt you- do you remember what I said to you? "Love is a mountain but harder to climb...it should be forever but love is unkind to me...Don't let me down"...and you let me down'

I'm not sure if it was Numan's original intent to base this particular body of work on Dawn but it certainly embodies her. The album is pure magic just as the goddess herself.

I've been a Numan fan going on 20 years now. After weak offerings such as The Fury and Machine and Soul, I had nearly all but written off Gary and was buying LP's and CD's just to be a completist. Then SACRIFICE made it's debut in my CD player in 1994 (along with the now out of print Sacrifice: Extended Mixes) and my faith and fandom in Numan increased exponentially! This is undoubtedly Numan's finest crafted release since Replicas...dark themes, looming presences, things that go bump in the night combined with hypnotic grooves and synth/sample generated noises make this a highly enjoyable albeit dark experience. From the ominous opening strains of "Pray" to the final "Seed of a Lie" this simply rates as a Numan classic in terms of style and continuity!

It looked like Gary Numan was floundering through the late 80's and early 90's, and I figured, well, he had a good career. Then came this album, which I was reluctant to buy. But finally everything comes together - his dark lyrics, the guitar work and menacing music. Maybe it's his wife. Recommended for fans of dark music.

After the excellent but unsuccesful ?Machine And Soul ?,Numan went in a darker,industrial direction taking elements from current (for 94) music which he had inspired and influenced in the first place.This is a low-budget solo effort made entirely by himself in the studio with the only aid of guitarrist Kipper for the extra solos and TJ Davies for some backing vocals.The lyrics deal with agnosticism in a very angry way,a direction he would follow for the next two records with great success.The music has now a lot of keyboard bottom end,heavy guitar parts,the usual percussion programming and much less processed and natural vocals.Most of the album is of a dark,heavy upbeat nature with some excellent slow,opressive songs in a way only Numan can achieve but all of them have a nicely acomplished melodic line to them.
The sound,on the other hand,is still not good but a vast improvement over the original release (I have Dawn too).The midrange has been cleaned and beefed up,so the vocals are no longer distorted and muddled up as before,and the upper end is a tad better as well,only it now exhibits a marked imbalance to the left ( revealed or introduced by remastering ? ) on many of the album tracks.
The bonus tracks are comprised of singles,b-sides and demos,of lesser sound quality but high musical value.An EXCELLENT album and in my opinion a better treat than the 2 follow ups in terms of musicality rather than sheer sonic impact.

I have to call this album a precursor as his latest albums really do not differ in style or lyrical content, but even so it's a robust beginning as strong as the rest of his industrial movement.

While the album does boast a slight musical immaturity in that the percussion for one is very similar throughout the entire album, which is a bit off putting, but overall the music ranks close to some of the strongest material he's done, especially in the likes of this being the introductory album to his new sound in that it's strong and refined, even though the preceding album, Machine + Soul, was very much beginning to lean towards this industrial feel, despite how hard most fans will deny the album's credibility.

Again with the percussion, most songs are pretty fimiliar in structure, with a low and often menacing tempo that allows the other instruments and production to creep in and deliver strong. 'A Question Of Faith' and 'Love And Napalm', however, continue the dancey techniques of his two earlier albums, while 'You Walk In My Soul' and 'Seed Of A Lie' are more typical dark Numan ballads.

One thing that stands out in this album are the vocals, very strong and focused. I remember reading somewhere that often Numan would write lyrical content after merely coming up with a song title, which of course is no bad strategy, but this time Numan seems to really want to convey something and the lyrics are not just there, but demand some attention.

One thing that bugs me with this release, however, is in additon to the somewhat short number of tracks in the original album only 4 bonus tracks are added, completely leaving out the 'Absolution' single which shortly came out after this release, it's b-side the newer version of 'Magic', or the b-side 'Whisper of Truth', all of which would've really helped bulk up the mix. There are also edit mixes of 'Question Of Faith' and 'Seed Of A Lie' that are absent, but not essential.

Still, this is a great album for older and modern Numan fans, and it's a complete shame that this album is in such small availability.

OK,up untill this point Gary had clearly lost the plot.And the goth-synth crown was now held by the Reznor's and Manson's of the world. Clearly influenced by the bands he had helped spawn Gary has come back with an album of epic proportions that is loud, violent and confident. From the overwhelming QUESTION OF FAITH to the quiet beauty of SEED OF A LIE this is clearly one CD you should own if you like goth-industrial music. Numan - often imitated, never bettered.

Gary Numan is an artist I used to stickly associate "Cars" with. This recorded starts the dark industrial influence for Gary. It truely feel he began a new journey here. The song, Pray defines the overall tone of the record. Play Like God is a very cool extended mix B side. Gary continues to grow and change. He puts together quite a band too.

The record is hard driving where as Exile is slower and darker industrial style techno I suppose. For me, "Pure" takes the cake, but this is a great spin. See him live too!

Numan recorded this album as an updated album for his private recordings as soundtrack for airplane-flights. The result named Sacrifice is more than a great album. I guess everyone that listened to this is enthralled by this beautifull music. It's sheer magic. This album is a magical moment in the 90's. I'm on my kness. OCCULT electro.