Formed in 1985 by 16-year-old bassist/vocalist Phil Rind, Phoenix’s Sacred Reich were isolated from thrash’s Bay Area hub and other coastal genre leaders. But their demo became a hot commodity on the underground tape-trading circuit before their ’87 debut, Ignorance, and subsequent ’88 EP, Surf Nicaragua, helped spearhead thrash’s second wave alongside Testament and Destruction. Lyrically, Sacred Reich doubled down on the genre’s political themes while revelling in a hectic, heavily syncopated style somewhere between Exodus and Anthrax. They called it quits in 2000, but reunited six years later. In 2019, they dropped Awakening, their first album in 23 years.