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Sacrifice

Gary Numan - Sacrifice Audio CD

A fair review of the Gary Numan "Sacrifice" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Gary Numan reviews here, or go back to the Gary Numan tabs.

Band: Gary Numan
Title: Sacrifice
Rating:

Release Date: 1998-08-11
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Pray 2: Deadliner 3: Question of Faith 4: Desire 5: Scar 6: Love and Napalm 7: You Walk in My Soul 8: Magic 9: Bleed 10: Seed of a Lie 11: Question of Faith [Extended][*] 12: Love and Napalm [Extended][*] 13: Metal Beat [*][Demo Version] 14: Play Like God [B-Side][*]

A strong precursor to his most recent work

While the album does boast a slight musical immaturity in that the percussion for one is very similar throughout the entire album, which is a bit off putting, but overall the music ranks close to some of the strongest material he's done, especially in the likes of this being the introductory album to his new sound in that it's strong and refined, even though the preceding album, Machine + Soul, was very much beginning to lean towards this industrial feel, despite how hard most fans will deny the album's credibility. I have to call this album a precursor as his latest albums really do not differ in style or lyrical content, but even so it's a robust beginning as strong as the rest of his industrial movement.

Again with the percussion, most songs are pretty fimiliar in structure, with a low and often menacing tempo that allows the other instruments and production to creep in and deliver strong. 'A Question Of Faith' and 'Love And Napalm', however, continue the dancey techniques of his two earlier albums, while 'You Walk In My Soul' and 'Seed Of A Lie' are more typical dark Numan ballads.

One thing that stands out in this album are the vocals, very strong and focused. I remember reading somewhere that often Numan would write lyrical content after merely coming up with a song title, which of course is no bad strategy, but this time Numan seems to really want to convey something and the lyrics are not just there, but demand some attention.

One thing that bugs me with this release, however, is in additon to the somewhat short number of tracks in the original album only 4 bonus tracks are added, completely leaving out the 'Absolution' single which shortly came out after this release, it's b-side the newer version of 'Magic', or the b-side 'Whisper of Truth', all of which would've really helped bulk up the mix. There are also edit mixes of 'Question Of Faith' and 'Seed Of A Lie' that are absent, but not essential.

Still, this is a great album for older and modern Numan fans, and it's a complete shame that this album is in such small availability.

Oh dear
You would have thought after a career spanning more than two decades Gary Numan would be able to engineer and mix his own recordings competently. I don't think I've heard an album with such appalling production values as Sacrifice.

Sacrifice is another droning earache of an album with absolutely zero dynamics. Song after song the same drum loop is used ad nauseam. Sonicaly it's all over the place, you can't hear what's going on so if there really are great melodies on this album then they're lost under a muddy wall of sound.

Maybe somebody within the Numan camp should tell him he can't engineer, mix or produce to save his life? Unfortunately Exile, Pure and the latest sonic disaster 'Jagged' all suffer from teeth grindingly hideous production and sloppy mixing. .

INDUSTRIAL BUT MELODIC !!!!
This is a low-budget solo effort made entirely by himself in the studio with the only aid of guitarrist Kipper for the extra solos and TJ Davies for some backing vocals. After the excellent but unsuccesful ?Machine And Soul ?,Numan went in a darker,industrial direction taking elements from current (for 94) music which he had inspired and influenced in the first place. The lyrics deal with agnosticism in a very angry way,a direction he would follow for the next two records with great success. The music has now a lot of keyboard bottom end,heavy guitar parts,the usual percussion programming and much less processed and natural vocals. Most of the album is of a dark,heavy upbeat nature with some excellent slow,opressive songs in a way only Numan can achieve but all of them have a nicely acomplished melodic line to them.
The sound,on the other hand,is still not good but a vast improvement over the original release (I have Dawn too). The midrange has been cleaned and beefed up,so the vocals are no longer distorted and muddled up as before,and the upper end is a tad better as well,only it now exhibits a marked imbalance to the left ( revealed or introduced by remastering ? ) on many of the album tracks.
The bonus tracks are comprised of singles,b-sides and demos,of lesser sound quality but high musical value. An EXCELLENT album and in my opinion a better treat than the 2 follow ups in terms of musicality rather than sheer sonic impact.

"I'll give you dark wonders you are all invited to the show"
Sacrifice was the first Numan album in years that did not have the Janet Jacksonesque dance music with the domineering female background vocalists. When Sacrifice came out in 1994, most Numan fans breathed a collective sigh of relief. It followed Machine & Soul which many fans consider the lowest point in his career. I can find many excellent tracks off all of Numan's albums from his dance era (even his collaboration with Bill Sharpe), but I was still glad to hear his new sound when I first heard Sacrifice. This album is all Numan. He sings all the vocals and plays all the instruments so it is filled with synthesizers and drum machines with no saxophones or annoying female vocalists. The music is very dark and heavy. Most of the lyrics are about questioning God's existence or benevolence, which caused some controversy but, for me, makes for very powerful stuff.

On first listen, the tracks seem to run together with the omnipresent drum machine but, after several plays, songs begin to stand out. Sacrifice was the first Numan release in years on which I find no weak tracks. There are no instrumental fillers either. A lot of thought and care was put into each track as Numan took his music into a new direction. My favorite track is "A Question of Faith" of which there is a cool remix on the compilation The Mix followed by the hardest rocker on the disc "Love & Napalm. " "You Walk in My Soul" is a dark, romantic ballad that a friend of mine actually wants played at his wedding. I don't know if it's that romantic, but it is nice. Sacrifice is also the album in Numan's new dark period that does not adopt a complete industrial sound. Most of his material after this album (especially Pure and the new tracks on Hybrid) takes this new style to a darker and heavier level with iniquitous screaming that may be a little much to listen to on a regular basis. Sacrifice stayed on the fine line towards industrial Nine Inch Nails style music brilliantly. I recommend purchasing this edition with the excellent "Metal Beat" demo. "Pray Like God" is not a filler B-side, but it is not as good as the rest of the album. It's rather bland and repetitive. For those who gave up on Numan when he started going techno dance, your missing out on some incredible stuff. Check out Sacrifice and then Exile and his latest material.

Transformation Album
This recorded starts the dark industrial influence for Gary. Gary Numan is an artist I used to stickly associate "Cars" with. It truely feel he began a new journey here. The song, Pray defines the overall tone of the record. Play Like God is a very cool extended mix B side. Gary continues to grow and change. He puts together quite a band too.

The record is hard driving where as Exile is slower and darker industrial style techno I suppose. For me, "Pure" takes the cake, but this is a great spin. See him live too!.

You can see a complete list of all Gary Numan discography, or go back to the Gary Numan tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.