Saccage "Death Crust Satanique" CD

Recorded and Mixed by Francois C. Fortin and Saccage
At Blastbeat Studio, Québec, Canada

I am not sure if outside of one review I just read, Canada’s Saccage has drawn more comparison to Toxic Holocaust, but I know this much, Joel Grinder hasn’t sounded this ballsy in a long time. The Saccage of today do play a style that genre-wise is close to what Grinder did at the beginning of his career: crusty black thrash with plenty of Teutonic influences, but that’s the extent of it. Elsewhere, Saccage are just maniacal with a driving sound so energetic and frenetic it can overwhelm and tire the older punks. Younger people who like excess may just find that the crusty sound in 2012 or 2013 does not start and especially does not end with whatever Southern Lord are releasing these days.
Expect nothing outside the ordinary. Saccage has the style down, from the attire to the recording, which is raw and blistering and yet features a sound that is professional and that disregards lo-fi rawness. The guitars, for instance, sound sharp and jagged, the drums are sectioned so that every tone is distinctive, and the vocals of Dan Mécréant, though clearly on the punk side, have a certain death metal feel, not guttural, but menacing and in parts, superhuman. Check the twisted screams at the start of the title track; yeah, a bit over the top, but it segues into a song that features gang choruses and a pace and beat that is closer to grindcore than anything else.
Fans of the extreme may get discouraged by a song like “Milice Anti-Police Calice”, which is obsessively melodic and sticky to the max, but then again I can’t imagine this not igniting the mosh pit. Death Crust Satanique is not at its best there though, as when Saccage opt for too much melody, their music loses some of its edge.
“Ostie de Chiennes de l'Enfer (Sur l'cuir)” is more like it, jagged all around, hyper-violent and based on coiling riffs and a steady beat that could sustain and get leaned the fattest of arrangements. Here Saccage include a short mid-tempo section that features the kind of wailing note that Dimebag popularized decades ago. Tip of the hat or not, this may not be noticed by most as the execution, and the overall sound of Saccage is so far removed to the chunk-friendly sounds of Pantera. Still, it says much about what Saccage are doing - punk to the core, but there is metal all over, too.

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