SACRIFICE Frontman On Comeback Album: 'We Wanted To Revisit The Old Days Of Thrash'

Jam! Showbiz recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Rob Urbinati of reactivated Canadian thrashers SACRIFICE. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the band's decision to reform:

"When we got back together, we set down some ground rules. We wouldn't pursue this if it wasn't great. We would stop if we thought people would hear what we doing and say it was crap compared to our old stuff."

On the group's comeback CD, "The Ones I Condemn":

"We wanted to revisit the old days of thrash. And we really wanted it to be instantly recognizable as a SACRIFICE album. So the songs had to be fast and they had to be heavy. And one thing we were really adamant about was to record it real — without the new studio trickery like drum triggers and AutoTuned vocals. We wanted to do it all organically. And I feel like this is the best performance I've ever done vocally.

"We just had the right mindset. We were really focused and had a good direction. A lot of bands from our era have got back together and released an album, and I'll get it as a fan and think, 'This isn't cutting it.' I didn't want that to happen with us."
On what was supposed to the band's one-off reunion gig in Toronto in 2006:

"We learned that our songs are really difficult to play after 15 years away. Getting your thrash-metal chops back is really difficult. But when the four of us got back together the first time, it was like riding a bike. It clicked right away.

"And that gig ended up being probably the best show we ever played. I don't think we realized how many fans we still had. We would have kicked ourselves if we hadn't done it."

On whether he has any regrets:

"We don't regret anything. It's the opposite; I'm happy with what we achieved. I would have never thought when I was 18 years old and recording our first album that people would still be listening to it in 2009. That in itself is amazing. There were a lot of bands that were successful back then that nobody gives a crap about anymore. If you're in it for the right reasons, you just want people to enjoy what you've done. And all this time later, people are still enjoying it."

On the band's future plans:

"I couldn't imagine getting in a van and going on tour now. That's not appealing. We're happy with where we are. We're content to play a show here and there and have fun with it. We play every show like it is our last, because we really don't know — it might be our last! But we feel like we did when we first got together; It's just four guys playing music and having fun. There's no pressure, there's no heavy business."

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