A Vision of Misery

This album comes close to being really great.

The punchiness of this album’s tone is reminiscent of the Florida sound, but is a bit crispier and not as scooped (lacking in mid-range crunch). We have a thrashing mixture of The Ten Commandments, Considered Dead, and Reign in Blood, with a riff-salad structure similar to contemporary albums like Unquestionable Presence. The riff-salad approach, where riffs are constantly shuffled and played for varying numbers of measures, can be both a strength and a hindrance. In this case, it really is both. The natural evolution of thrash and death metal into a technical direction is only natural, stemming from a desire to continue creating original and unique material with more potential variation. The problem is, certain atmospheres rely on specific sounding riffs which, although unholy metal is considered to be in the chromatic scale (all notes), do tend to follow certain scales and patterns. This creates the paradox where more variation actually seems to create more staleness. In this case, the quality of the riffs and drums themselves carry the album despite the occasional drift towards staleness.

It was never a question that the musicians in Sadus were legitimate technicians. Where they display wisdom is in applying their technicality in a way to serve the underlying progress of the riffing. There is plenty of shredding, but it is strategically placed between ample chunks of time where the rhythm guitar is able to breathe and properly migrate the feel of the song. The drums cycle through all the classic thrash beats, but there are some other strong grooving beats throughout this album that are less typical. I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys hammered this out in a live take, it is clear they are well practiced machines.

Years ago, I had no concept of distinguishing harsh vocals from screaming. This difference became apparent as I listened to more unholy music from the full spectrum of the genre history. My dislike of literal screaming is what harms this album most for me; in particular, layered screaming, where it sounds like one vocal track fades while another comes right back in to scream again (Bathory’s Under the Sign… suffers from this, as well). Harsh vocals exist because clean melodic vocals would often clash with sour, distortion soaked riffing. They provide rhythmic accent and give a possessed human element. Screaming, however, is not the voice of a possessed human as are certain harsh vocals, but is a sound made by an actual emotional human. Used sparingly it can have its place, but overall it distracts from the spirit of the metal and can become obnoxious. I would have loved to hear the punchy deathrash riffs on this album accented with crossover or barked thrash type vocals, traditional death growl with less screaming, or even just the non-screamed style that is used throughout these songs (see closing track “Echoes of Forever” for some killer vocals). Screaming just seems like a lack of creativity in harsh vocals, even if done with skill.

The vocals make this an album that I can only listen to when I know no one else is in earshot. The good thing is that there are a lot of instrumental passages where riffwork and tight drumming hold it down with no soloing instruments or vocals. This dominance of rhythmic passages is the essence of pure thrash and death metal and sets them apart from many melody-instrument dominated genres. The riffing is definitely great, and although the riffs don’t get stuck in your head (they may after many more listens, of course), the album overall sticks in your head and calls you to listen several times. The only musical complaint I can think of besides the potential for staleness is that the drums don’t seem to be getting smashed hard enough (there is such concentration on rhythmic tightness). Other than that, if you go for jazzy-leaning old school death and real thrash with crisp sound and do not mind repeated screaming, this album could potentially be a favorite for you. Give it a shot if you like Ripping Corpse’s Dreaming with the Dead and Assorted Heap’s The Experience of Horror.