Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Sacred Denial - Life's Been Getting To Me


"Sacred Denial was a Punk Hardcore band that was started by myself and Anthony Machovsky - later known as Anthony Trance. We started it in 1982. Anthony and I were in CCD classes together at Saint Pauls church in Clifton. We met musically in the basement of Steve Cosmano, then rehersing with the band Suburbia - they never really did much. We recognized each other there at their practice and decided to jam on our own. So I walked my guitar and heavy Sun combo amp over to his basement and that’s where it stayed while the band was formed.

Many people played in SD over the years, but Ant and I were the constant. Among the most notable was Janus, who wrote quite a bit of the lyrics and sang for the band on all the recorded albums. The most notable drumers were Bill Tortugal who raced on the debut album Life’s Been Getting to Me. Kenny Drany who played on North of the Order and Sifting Through Remains. Ken Seely was a friend in another local band called the Newd. He joined us later as a bass player and Ant moved onto rhythm guitar for our last album. He also went on the bands two biggest tours accross the US in 1987 and Europe in 1988.

-Michael G. Devita"


I became obsessed with finding this record "song-unheard" after seeing a picture of the cover somewhere. The title just DID IT for me. A sly understatement of a boiling rage evident on the album. Once I saw a copy and bought it, I was not disappointed. Some of the songs on this record (What Religion, Sticks and Stones) near Is This My World? levels of intensity. Its not always that perfect, however, and the regrettable AOD-type Jersey fun punk crap rears its ugly head on tracks like W.C.W.B.F. The use of vocal echo features prominently on nearly all songs, but I can't really decide if it works all the time. If this really does it for anyone else I can also furnish the achingly inferior "follow-up" Extra-Strenght Tylenol LP.