What to write, what to write? It's hard to come up with nifty metaphors, and unused adjectives trying to explain music like this. Writer's block is a bitch and quite impossible to get through when you're making a serious effort to overcome it, with a healthy, long enough review as your goal. Anyway, rant over, Lion Music tends to pick up a lot of power/prog acts and rarely misses. Section A contains members from Lion's Share among others and play strong neoclassical infused typical power/progressive metal. This is the third outlet from the Danish trio, and is supposedly leaning more towards melodic heavy metal territory. This took me a while to appreciate as I'm pretty fed up on straight-forward simple modern flowery stuff like this which keeps popping up on my radar all the time. However, the slightly old-school production drew me into this, and while sitting on the metro to work I thought to myself, “Hey, this is actually damn cool, I'll switch album now, and listen to them on the way home”. I rarely make those deals with myself when it comes to newer bands, so there had to be something to it? It definitely was, after spins after spin without really grabbing my attention, things finally clicked. Section A possesses nothing more than it needs to to make an impression on people. A more than capable vocalist made for the genre, a really stellar guitarist both riff- and solo-wise as well as good song-writing. The rhythm-part is also solid, so this should be at least enjoyable for those of you willing to give it a try or two.

There's a bundle of great songs here, however, they don't feel overly complete. The great guitaring and vocals are the elements that make those tracks what they are. Being used to technically slick music, I would definitely enjoy a more sparkling rhythm-section instead of the dry drums. There's nothing particularly challenging to be heard except a couple of breaks that takes a magnifying glass to discover. Other than that though, this has a lot of excitement to it. The spark is ignited with the title-track, which is mid-paced and crunchy. The soloing strikes you pretty fast, and so does the great vocal work. The riffs aren't particularly ground-breaking or anything, yet still full of push and fun. Room With a View takes a slightly more progressive turn riff-wise, and is slightly heavier. The soloing is again breathtaking, and the vocals melodies are melting nicely together with everything else. Lionheart does, and I swear that this doesn't have anything to do with the title, remind me a fair bit of Saxon. The old-school approach I'm hearing in the production here is warm, fuzzy and adds tons of meat to the musical framework, and is the ultimate element of attraction for yours truly. The ballad-like songs here are also pretty entertaining, not dry nor boring, and with heaps of spicy neoclassical madness from Torben Enevoldsen. Circus Maximus' Lasse Finbråten provides the keyboard leads on Land of the Desert Sun for the record, which is nearly nowhere to be found on the rest of Sacrifice. I can't for the life of me imagine that anyone with decency will miss keyboard-solos, at least I don't, which bumps this a couple of points up on my part.

All in all, while doesn't quite hit the nail on the head for me, everyone with a profound passion for power metal should give this a shot. With songs like the aforementioned Room With a View, Lionheart as well as killers like Intoxicated and the great closer The City is Falling. Sacrifice is a strong, melodic and powerful performance made up by great guitar-work, flawless vocals and great production. Not very artsy nor re-inventive, but definitely favourable over a whole bunch of mediocre stuff spat out shamelessly all the time. Recommended.