Sadistic Ritual - Edge Of The Knife

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia in the United States is Sadistic Ritual who have returned with their new EP entitled “Edge Of The Knife”. On this EP you will find glorious sounds that will take you back to the heavenly sounds of thrash metal that blessed us around the mid to late 80’s. It’s really nice to see a band like this take the reins, or the peverbial ball and just totally run with it. This is total old school worship at its finest. However, there is something “modern” sounding about this that I just can’t seem to put my finger on, but it’s just an added bonus to an already excellent sounding slab of thrashing madness.

Even though Sadistic Ritual are labelled as a thrash band, there is a slight yet undeniable death metal element in thee as well, but it’s blended perfectly into the music so you’re not going to pick up on it unless you’re listening to this with great attention. The influences and vibes here are great and amazing beginning with bands such as early Kreator, Dark Angel, Cerebral Fix, and go on to include bands like Mantic Ritual, Ironchrist, and maybe even a little Forbidden as well. And what the heck, let’s go ahead and throw in a little bit of Celtic Frost just to make it over the top. In other reviews I have written brutality through simplicity. Well, this is about as simple as it gets. I really don’t pick up on anything too technical here as the material on this EP takes me back to a time in metal when bands were still trying to find themselves and carve their niche into a genre that was still fairly fresh and new. For those of you old enough to remember those days, you know what a glorious time that was. Now, there is a little bit of technical ability shown in the solos but other than that everything else seems to be really simple, at least from the perception of the delivery. There are absolutely no gimmicks here. This entire EP is just absolute 100% in-your-face thrash metal at its finest. They’ve only been in existence since 2009, but in hearing this CD, you would swear they have been around for decades. When you hear something so simplistically perfect and brutal like this, you cannot help but sit up and take notice. I know I didn’t mention Slayer as an influence as I figured it went without saying, but you could take this EP and put it up against ANY of Slayer’s early work and there would be absolutely no doubt in my mind that the material could and would hold its own. There is pride, dedication, and a lot of hard work here. That much you can tell from the first note to the last. I was hooked before the first song was over, and I am most positive that anyone who hears this EP will be too.

Once again Unspeakable Axe Records has hit another one out of the park by releasing this CD EP. If you are a fan of any of the above mentioned bands or others along those lines then you really need to get this release. It is limited to 500 copies so you may want to grab it quick. I don’t know if there is going to be a repress, but as good as this material is, I would imagine that it is going to sell out which should inspire a repress if in deed that happens. Contact the label or the band, hell maybe even both and get the details on how you can add this thrashing masterpiece to your collection!


  1. Merciless Retribution
  2. Funeral Raid
  3. Executioner
  4. Restless Dead
  5. Edge Of The Knife
  6. Morbid Genocide