"Sacrilege" was named "Best New Track" by Pitchfork Media February 26, 2013. Dan Martinson stated in his positive review, "Karen O falls for an angel who falls from the sky, the constant clank of Brian Chase's cymbals and Nick Zinner's guitar curlicues evoke "Gimme Shelter" with an exaggerated gospel swing."[5]
Music video
The music video was directed by French collective Megaforce and premiered on March 26, 2013.[6] The video stars English model and actress Lily Cole.[7] The video consists of a chronologically reversed sequence of events outlining the rationale and events leading to a group of people in a small town shooting a man and burning a promiscuous woman (Cole) alive. The band does not appear in the video.
In popular culture
In July 2013, "Sacrilege" was featured in the season three premiere episode of Suits.
In October 2013, "Sacrilege" was featured across the closing scenes of the second episode of The Originals.[8]
The song was used in the September 2023 premiere episode of Wilderness, played while Jenna Coleman's character lashes out and burns her cheating husband's (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, not present in scene) clothes.
In Season 1, Episode 8 of Kaos, released August 2024, Sacrilege plays over the closing climactic scenes as Zeus (Jeff Goldblum) discovers he is bleeding, Hera (Janet McTeer) abandons Olympus, Hades (David Thewlis) encounters Canaeus (Misia Butler) renewing his mother's soul, and Ariadne (Leila Farzad) plans with Andromache (Amanda Douge) to rebuild Troy and destroy Olympus.