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Another lost album finally brought to the limelight by Vic Records, When Hope is Pain was recorded in 1995 but their label went out of business. Fast forward to 2018, the band released a digital edition on Bandcamp and now Vic Records are giving it a proper physical release with extensive liner notes (that's according to the press release; promos are digital these days).

The band plays kind of a technical form of thrash on this album and I find they're a bit of a hybrid between the dirtier, more aggressive German style of the mid-80s, think Destruction and Kreator, and the cleaner but nonetheless aggressive style of Slayer. The vocals are closer to what you'd expect of Schmier, but as far as the music goes it's really a mix of influences of the aforementioned bands, and Ritual Sacrifice do a pretty good job of marrying those two schools of in-your-face thrash metal. I can't say that I've heard anything here that wowed me, but I find it's a lot of fun while it's on.