SACRED REICH To Enter Studio In April 2024

Arizona thrash metal veterans SACRED REICH are planning to enter the studio in April 2024 to begin recording the follow-up to 2019’s “Awakening”.

The band’s recording plans were revealed earlier today (Thursday, November 23) in a Thanksgiving Day social media post by SACRED REICH bassist/vocalist Phil Rind. He wrote: “Today in the US we celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s an appropriate way to celebrate the end of the ‘Awakening’ touring cycle. Beginning in 2019 we’ve played 234 shows in 23 countries. It was an incredible journey that took us to new places and reunited us with many old faces. Through it all we’ve relied on the love and support of our families who carry on in our absence. We could never have done it without our crew @michael_audiotech, @skid_on_tour, @abou_raissa_mathieu_lesage, @crissta and @dirtysouthmoss along with @chrisgreentm, @ppshiver and @wvhardcore .

“Thanks to @metalbladerecords for their continued love and support. Thanks to our agents for all the great tours. A special thank you to all the killer bands we’ve shared the stage with @gwar, @toxicholocaust_official, @nightdemonmetal, @sepultura, @crowbarmusic, @artofshock, @carcass, @municipalwaste, @creepingdeathtx, @deathangelofficial and @angelusapatrida, @ironreaganofficial, @testamentofficial, @dustbolt_official, @megadeth and @kreatorofficial.

“Finally we would like to thank the fans for making it all possible. Each night on tour we take a moment to acknowledge that without the support of our fans we would not be able to continue as a band. You buy the records. You buy the tickets. You buy the merchandise. You are the reason we can continue to play music and tour. You have given us this incredible life in music and we are eternally grateful. Thank you.

“If you’ve made it this far we have a bit of news for you. We will be headed back into the studio in April to record our next record. We are super excited! Hopefully the record will be out by the end of 2024.

“Once again thank you for your love and support. On behalf of @wiley.arnett, @davemcclaindrums and @joeyradziwill I wish you peace, love and happiness. Always.”

This past June, SACRED REICH guitarist Wiley Arnett spoke to The Meista – Brews & Tunes about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to “Awakening”. He said: “It’s been an amazing process. We didn’t do a record for a long time for several reasons, but one of the biggest is the well had kind of run dry. We lean hard on Phil for a lot of the writing — a hundred percent of the lyrics and almost as much music. And if he’s not feeling it or inspired, then there’s really nothing for us to say. And after a long time sitting away and then coming back and starting to do the reunion shows, we got a taste of it again. And then a crazy world — our kids are getting older, moving out, graduating high school. It was easy to talk yourself out of getting busy in a band over the years. So between a lack of inspiration, no new ideas and a sense of, ‘We should be at home doing important stuff,’ we definitely did part for a while. But 2007, we got back out. We went nearly 10 years just banging out old songs — ‘Surf [Nicaragua]’, ‘The American Way’, ‘Death Squad’, ‘Independent’; all the old stuff — having a blast. Every show felt like a high school reunion for us, seeing guys with the wizard stripes, just like us, and just reminiscing about all the great times or that time they saw us in New Jersey in 1989 or ’91 or somewhere in France. And it’s been so cool to go back and reignite those connections. And it was just inspiring. And then global events.

“We’ve always been a political band,” he continued. “I think when you look at ‘Awakening’… Some people were, like, ‘Oh, Trump came around. All of a sudden they were inspired again.’ If you look close at ‘Awakening’, there’s a little splash of it, but it’s really not the theme these days. We certainly reserve the right, ’cause we’re so motivated that way to try to make people who might not hear those messages actually hear ’em through metal.

“But it feels good. It feels inspired. It doesn’t feel pushed. It feels natural. It would have been ideal for us to record or release something by the end of this year, but we felt pressure for that, and we resisted it. We were, like, ‘No.’ It’s not the best strategy on paper, but it’s just gotta come when it feels right. We play the songs we love. We enjoy our most success when we’re pleasing ourselves and then we find the people who agree with us. So we’re kind of figuring out our stuff. ‘Awakening’ was a great start. We’ve got two more records on our current deal. And, obviously, we’re not writing the third one just yet. But the second one, I think we’ve got six or seven songs that are all the way there. We’d like to see 10, 12 songs. Of course, we never get that high. But that’s a goal. And we don’t really write songs for throwaway. We’re not one of those bands who do 20 [songs] and pick their favorite 10. We just write until we feel like we’ve got a record, and then we book studio time. So we’re moving right along. We’re feeling pretty inspired.

“We got pretty busy this year,” Wiley added. “It’s been crazy. We started off in March in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, which was quite the adventure. We’d never been to a couple of those spots, like Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore, Vietnam — we’d never been to any of those places. So it was pretty frickin’ amazing. And then [we] came home and did the U.S. tour and now we’re preparing to go [to] Europe. So that can stifle creativity. We’re not one of those bands with the headphones in the backstage [or] in the basement in a club writing the new record. It seems to happen when there’s time off. The smoke settles. We calm our thoughts and be creative. So we’re just coming off about a month of that. It’s been a crazy time. But we can feel the momentum picking back up. And I think we’re on target — hopefully early 2024 in the studio, with a release by the end of the year.”

“Awakening” was released in August 2019 via Metal Blade Records. The LP was produced by Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, POWER TRIP and CODE ORANGE, among others. The album marked SACRED REICH‘s first release since the return of drummer Dave McClain.

“Awakening” was described in a press release as “a timeless collection comprised of blistering thrash, crushing grooves, killer solos and socially conscious lyrics that demonstrate a true understanding of everything that matters most in the world today.”

“Awakening” was engineered by John Aquilino and was mastered by Maor Appelbaum.

Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral