Sacrifice "S/t" demo 2000's

Brace yourself, here is a demo from an obscure Japanese band. Now, if it doesn't get me hundreds of downloads by the end of the day, I don't know what will.

I have had a troubled relationship with Japanese punk for a few years now. On the one hand, I find there are many worthy bands there and indeed I have a genuine fondness for some Japanese bands (SDS and Zoe for instance). On the other hand, I have also noticed a lot of bands are hyped to death, highly revered and sought after, not on their merits but because they hail from Japan. Don't get me wrong. I highly doubt most  of these bands even realize they are being idolized. Such behaviour has more to with the geeky fanboy mentality so prevalent in some circles than with the actual quality of the music. Nonetheless, there is still this propensity to acclaim Japanese punk records (it is sadly often more about records than music at the end of the day) on the face of it. Thank fuck there is no such thing as Japanese punk cosplay.

But back to this demo. I tried to find some background information about Sacrifice but to no avail. Apparently, the demo was recorded at Otoya studio but that's pretty much it. No date either. It has to be said that most of the words in the insert are in Japanese so a lot of it is unfortunately lost on me. I initially bought this demo because the name of the band, Sacrifice, and the aesthetics of the cover drove me to think that it could be a Sacrilege-inspired band, which it isn't in the least. You always learn, don't you?

Sacrifice has this distinct Japanese punk sound that so many of us are suckers for. It is fast, energetic, the drums pummel, the guitar distorts and the bass buzzes. There are these typical rolls pioneered on that side of the world by Confuse but the pace mostly beats the D in a fast and furious fashion. It is not quite as distorsion-drenched as bands like Defector or Framtid and the vocals are not as yelled. While Sacrifice still has one foot firmly in the crasher-crust camp, a more 90's Japanese hardcore is also present, especially in the singer's flow and the overall punch of the recording. The sound is great for a demo and the lyrics are in Japanese (apart from the songs' titles, oddly enough) which is something that I appreciate in spite of the lack of translations. Judging from the artwork (there is a drawing of Bush with, hopefully, some Japanese insults over him), all the fuss is about disarmament, the disrespect of human life and the filthy power of money.

For all I know, Sacrifice could have been some sort of all-star band or on the contrary some very local band whose members vanish into punk obscurity afterwards. Any complementary information is welcome!

Sacrifice!