NOTHING SACRED – No Gods

Nothing Sacred were formed early in the 80s  and they rocked the Australian scene during the penultimate decade of the 20th century until the decision of splitting up was made. Years have passed and the musicians decided to try join forces once again. Months spent on jamming, practicing and recording resulted with a ten track album which is due to come out in July 2021. Here’s No Gods, the second long play by Nothing Sacred.

Although Nothing Sacred are classified as Power/Thrash Metal, No Gods does not seem to sound like either of those genres. What it brings to mind is mostly Alternative Rock with a fair bit of Punk Rock, slightly garnished with a bit of Metal. Sounds as if the guys at Nothing Sacred do not want to be one of those Old School bands and they’ve decided to go for a sound no earlier than that of the 21st century. After all, the opening track would have been a perfect choice for a legendary PC game such as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. Alongside “You” by Bad Religion or “When Worlds Collide” by Powerman5000 could it surely belong. That kind of strutting groove in the middle part of the song sounds slightly – just slightly – similar to the breakdown from “Wrathchild” off Killers by Iron Maiden. The album goes on and the band – at least in the following track titled “Virus” – reveals their Party Rock side. It can bring such bands as Cowboys From Hell era Pantera or even the 90s Mötley Crüe, although that concerns the feel that song has to it. It is not much about the music itself, so die hard fans of the aforementioned bands – don’t expect anything dead similar to those.

The album goes on and there sure are some good things to say about it, like the sound of the bass to name just one. If one would like to hear one more positive thing, then it is the guitar solos. These are really spot-on. Sadly, that’s pretty much it as far as the fabulous things go. An opposite analogy to Metallica’s St. Anger could be made here. That 2003 record got a lot of negative critique for multiple reasons, but one of them was the lack of solos a Thrash Metal band should always deliver. The opinions about songs would be pretty mixed, but most Metal fans would pick at least a couple of songs to like more than the rest. Here the situation is quite the opposite: there are truly amazing solos here, but sadly nothing splendid as far as the background goes. It’s like really fabulous icing on a cake that could be much better. And it’s not because these songs are not catchy or kicking enough. They seem to be somewhat over saturated, as if the band was trying to pack too much into them. They really could do with some flow. Or maybe, the guys at Nothing Sacred should go for a change and start writing music for PC games – it’s not just the opening track, but also the 8th one titled “Cult” that could definitely be a great background for collecting the bonuses and skating around in one of the THPS series.

All in all, there are good and bad things to say about No Gods. If the guys feel accomplished doing what they do and their fans are content with it, then there shouldn’t be anything in the way. Not every band is meant to get written down in cards of history as one to have set a new standard and release some milestones of albums or songs. But smoking a hench joint and having some beer to No Gods sounds worthwhile for sure.