[Brian Taylor] asked us and the guys from SLAUGHTER to come down and talk and he offered to pay for our recordings and he would sell them at the [Record Peddler] store to make back the money. He was in a local hardcore band called YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH and sold Punk bands demos previously. We all agreed and got ready to fulfill our dreams of recording. When "Surrender Or Die" was done we were really excited about the sound quality and thought ours would be similar. Our "The Exorcism" demo didn't come close to the sound of theirs, but we were glad to have a real demo finally. Gus had a problem we would harass him about a lot which was that he wouldn't pound his snare drum. You can only hear hi hats on the fast parts of that demo. He did correct the problem for our first album, and we did learn from that small recording. The small studio we used was called Accusonic and was on the top floor of what is now the building which houses Canada's music video network Much Music. It was fairly decrepit back then in '85 but the building has been renovated since and I can't believe it's the same place.
- Rob Urbinati / Sacrifice interview, Voices from the Darkside
SACRIFICE recorded for the first time in studio on this day in 1985 at Accusonic, Toronto. The only earlier SACRIFICE recordings are rehearsal tapes.
SACRIFICE ARE:
Rob Urbinati: Lead vocals and deathly tremolo excursions
Joe Rico: Lead guitar
Scott Watts: Fucking bass
Gus Pynn: Drums
The memory I have the most is that I called myself Scott "the fuckin' bass" Watts. That's pretty funny. Recording for the first time was so cool, a real learning experience that's for sure. I didn't realize at the time - due to lack of experience, that it took so long to record a demo. The outcome ended up being great especially because it helped starting the underground Metal scene in Toronto. That summer I took it down to Florida and I met Chuck from DEATH and a bunch of his friends who had a magazine that was pretty big in the underground Metal scene ... They loved the demo which in turn helped us get into the U.S scene.
- Scott Watts / Sacrifice interview, Voices from the Darkside
The intro - "The Shining" - features an extract from Krzysztof Penderecki's De natura sonoris No. 2, which of course was used to great effect on The Shining (1980) soundtrack.
The spoken sample at the end of the intro is taken from Evil Dead (1981).
A more recent description of this demo written by the band:
In 1985, a local record store employee and friend of the band, financed the recording of this demo in exchange for the profits made by selling the tape at his shop. Sacrifice agreed, and released The Exorcism demo featuring new original songs. It was a very raw and heavy release and very collectable today.
Later that year, Sacrifice opened a show in Toronto for Exodus, who were on their first North American tour. Sacrifice credits the growth of their band and the Toronto underground metal scene in general to their appearance at this show. As a result of their growing popularity the band signed a contract with Diabolic Force.