Illusions

Respected with huge cult among the most thrash metal fans, Sadus is one of the most influential thrash/death bands at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s., which, surprisingly, is not so much talked about. The start of this band dates back to 1985; then Darren Travis (guitar/vocals), Jon Allen (drums), Steve DiGiorgio (bass) and Rob Moore (second guitar) begin to take their first steps in creating extreme music and hit the very promising demos year after year, i.e. "D.T.P" (death to posers hehe) and "Certain Death". However, it soon turned out in 1988 that both tapes were just a foretaste of the fury that was then inherent in these Americans.

This is because on their debut "Illusions" it exploded with a vengeance. Suffice it to mention, as in the whole album, powerful are: riffs, Darren's vocals (with a better throat exploitation than Tom Araya or Mille Petrozza), drums (even with blasts in the second half of the disc), solos (necessarily with a lot of rowdy sounds), as well as fretless, bass Steve's madness (sometimes with mini-solos). Chaos as you look at it, but you also quickly notice that nothing is a matter of chance or playing "whatever works". With all this harum-scarum...none of the tracks, however, blend together and do not get boring for even a second! For this simple reason, I should mention "Torture", "Undead", "And Then You Die", "Twisted Face" or "Sadus Attack", but actually, all of them. Well, each of them is an equally decent thrash/death kick in the face and a pool of interesting ideas. Even an unnecessary outro in the form of "Chemical Exposure" is not something that disturbs the general, very enthusiastic reception of the disc. In fact, I would say that at the stage of this song, a listener can only bounce back to the rest after such a solid thrashing!

So "Illusions" is a real gem when it comes to technical thrash/death with no advantage of the first part over the other two genres. These four Americans on their debut album beautifully showed the essence of extreme, thrash with a pinch of technique, and at the same time, the upcoming death metal evolution in this music. And all this in 1988!

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2022/07/sadus-illusions-1988.html