I’m a late-to-the-party metalhead, okay? As in started my Thrash education with …And Justice For All and Countdown To Extinction kind of late. But from there, I went back and discovered the rich history of the genre and opened my ears to the outliers like Testament, Flotsam & Jetsam, and the band of the hour in this particular piece, Sacred Reich. I fell in love with the Phoenix-based outfit because of 1993’s Independent which is still beautifully brutal as much as it is lyrically potent and poignant.

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