UMUR
"The Sacrifice" is a demo release by Swedish death metal act Torture Division, released in November 2013. It´s the second demo release by the band in 2013, as they already released "The Worship" in June 2013. Like the case are with all other releases by the band (and there are quite a few by now), the demo is offered as a free download (with the option to donate money) on the band´s website.
"The Sacrifice" features 3 tracks and a full playing time of 9:11 minutes, which is pretty much business as usual for the band and their releases. What they don´t deliver in quantity they thankfully deliver in quality though and as usual we´re treated to powerful Swedish death metal. It´s definitely rooted in old school early nineties Swedish death metal, but it features a more contemporary sounding production, which suits the music well. It´s clear (not polished), raw and powerful. The band skillfully vary pace and riffing style, which ensures variation and they master both fast blasting and heavier grooves. This time around they´ve included a Swedish language track in "Fähund", which is something they´ve done on quite a few releases now. A great treat to my ears. There´s an extra "fuck You" attitude to the delivery, when they perform in their native language, that isn´t as prevailing when they perform in English.
"The Sacrifice" is yet another strong death metal release in a now long line of strong death metal releases by Torture Division. Their insistence on only self-releasing demos and not label releases, doesn´t hide the fact that they are among the elite death metal acts from Sweden. They could easily get signed to a label if that´s what they wanted, but there is a clear intent behind releasing their music like they do, and the main reason is having fun, having full control of their product, and not having to deal with labels. I greatly respect that and while there´s nothing "silly funny" about their music, it´s still obvious when you listen to the music that it´s created for the love of music, having fun and nothing else. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.