Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sadus - Swallowed in Black
Two words: Thrash Masterpiece. This is another one of those debut albums where everything came together perfectly, never to be repeated again. This album likely gets overlooked because it came out so late in the game ('90), but it's every bit as good as Reign in Blood or Among the Living, or whatever else the critics have told you to worship for the past 25 years. Sadus were well beyond their peers in terms of technical ability and sheer speed; this is about as fast as it gets without getting into blast-beat territory. Sadus being a trio, I love, because it gets rid of all the instrumental clutter and delivers an efficient kick to the balls. This album is just super-tight from beginning to end, everyone's playing is spot-on and all the instruments get equal play. Even the bass (the beaten step-child instrument of Metal) has prominence, thanks to Steve DiGiorgio's spiderman-like, wall-scaling style. The vocals have sneer and spit for days, and of course, the guitars pack more power chords and scales in one song than most rock bands have in their entire discography! Constant headbanging with serious musical weight is what you have here. If you at all like thrash and have not heard this yet, you need to download and give it a shot!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Amazing, amazing album. One of my favorites!
ReplyDeleteGood review, fucking spot on!
ReplyDeleteJust a couple of minor corrections I'd like to make... first, this was their sophomore effort; the excellent (and every bit as worthy) 1988 release "Illusions" (later re-released as "Chemical Exposure") was their debut. Second, Sadus were a four-piece on their first three albums, which is probably what afforded them the luxury of writing and playing a much more technical and innovative sound back then.
ReplyDeleteWhoops. I've known this was their second for years now, but I guess I had a memory lapse when I wrote this. I always considered them a trio because that was their format when I saw them live, although history says otherwise.
ReplyDelete