Sacred Reich, live at Whelan's

The venue bulged with friendly violent fun, reminiscent of a much-loved but long gone establishment on St. Anne’s street that saw much murder on the dancefloor and blood upon the stage throughout its metal years.

And patch-jacket-runner-boot-time-machine was very much the order of the day as Arizona’s Sacred Reich took to an Irish stage for the first time in 22 years. A heaving mass of sweating thrashiness moshed, dived and crowd surfed their way through a set of classics.

Always something of a blunt instrument and never in the top echelons of the genre the Reich exhibit more of a punk hardcore/groove inflection to their brand of thrash. However, as tonight’s performance shows they (despite singer Phil Rind obviously suffering from illness) enjoy themselves, play with heart and give their all.

Kicking off with ‘Independent’ they blast through a set that culls the best tracks from their back catalogue. The rattling rumble and cascading guitar careering of ‘Ignorance’, the rhythmic headbang chug of ‘The American Way’, and the bludgeoning groove of ‘Death Squad’ highlight the proto political riff ramming of the band at their best.

But this is a night of nostalgia, remembrance and togetherness. The band, happy to be here, happy to be playing, happy to be remembered. A cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’, sung start to finish by sweating pigs, allows Rind’s struggling voice a break and illustrates the oneness of crowd and band. The stomp of ‘One Nation’ and squeal shred of ‘Violent Solutions’ send bodies slamming forth like crash test dummies whilst ‘Who’s To Blame’ takes us back to a time when hysterical parents and senators wives with burning torches trawled metal albums for backwards messages and demonic intent.

An encore of the ‘Surf Nicaragua’ hauls boards towards Managua before the band depart, the house lights go up and we’re back in 2012. Victims Of Demise? Don’t believe it.