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Sacred Sin are a veteran act of the Portuguese scene, forming in 1991 and releasing six full-lengths along with several EPs and demos over the span of nearly three decades outside of a 2-year hiatus from 2011-2013. Anguish... I Harvest is actually their third album, but it's recently received a reissue through Grimm Distribution that includes the band's 1997 rehearsal tape as well, hence why I'm getting to it now.

Musically, this is Death/Thrash with an emphasis on the Thrash that incorporates some keyboards and the harsh vocals of José Costa, whose half-grunted delivery sounds a good bit like Altti Veteläinen and King Fowley. The star of the show is the guitar duo of Nuno Gonçalves and Tó Pica, who wring out an endless stream of stellar harmonies and killer riffs whose sharp sense of melody and aggression remind me a lot of Chuck Shuldiner's work. The music on here is fairly offbeat and innovative, particularly on the progressive and upbeat "Astral", and it's this willingness to experiment that probably led the band to go on as long as it has. The same can't be said for the rehearsal tape, whose sound quality is so poor as to be practically unlistenable. It was probably put in for the collectors out there, but even then, I don't see much point including it here. If you've never listened to Sacred Sin's brand of strange and novel Death/Thrash before, then this is a pretty good place to fix that.