The South African death metal band Sacrifist was already founded in 1993, a very early date for South African metal bands. Around 1995 a demo called When the Tides Turn was released. After years of silence, the debut album Liquid Seasons was produced in 1999. Somehow they took their time again (fitting the South African image) and produced their second album The Well of Sacrifice five years later in 2004. I have no clue why I received the album in 2007, but what the hell…

The Well of Sacrifice consists of very melodic death metal with loads of easy Iron maiden-like tunes (well… not really). The music itself is a mix of commercial Gothenburg death metal and strangely the Dutch death metal band Gorefest comes to my mind.

Gothenburg metal always sounds very nagging in my ears, with its sing-along songs. But it is the latter influence that makes this release somewhat interesting, causing it to be a bit more rock and roll. Too bad, the Gothenburg overall rules the music… a weird thing when keeping in mind the band hails from South Africa. The production is quite good, the sound is heavy and clear. Another strength of this album are the guitar solos, they make the music more interesting. Some atmosphere is added by several intermezzos, being a movie sample (the song 13th) and some gloomy sounds (at the beginning of the song Troubled Minds). In all, not a really interesting release, not that bad either.