Illusions

Sadus' debut belongs to a certain subset of thrash records that came out in the mid-1980s, in the vein of Pleasure to Kill, Reign in Blood, Darkness Descends, Eternal Devastation, Finished with the Dogs, and many more. This sort of thrash isn't the more melodic fare you'll find in a lot of bands, this goes straight for the jugular and doesn't let go. The songs tend to be shorter and faster, with vocals that can border on death metal. The records themselves rarely pass 40 minutes, and tend more to be in the 30s. In short, face-melting, utterly punishing, high-bpm statements of violence, both very unsubtle and very enjoyable. This record, put simply, is all of those things.

From the album's opener, Certain Death, Sadus doesn't beat around the bush. After about 30 seconds of slowly increasing feedback, the thrash begins, and doesn't let up for the next 25 minutes. Certain Death is probably the best song on the album. It even has a short section in 9/8, which I didn't even notice was in there until I looked at a tab. That's a hallmark of impressive compositional skill, being able to sneak progressive parts into a song like that while still keeping the straight-ahead thrash vibe intact. Despite being probably the best one on the album, Certain Death has some stiff competition. The album isn't quite at the level where every track is uniformly amazing, but it's still quite consistent. There's more or less not a bad song on here. With the exception of the final track (which I will go into later), the songs are fairly similar, barrelling along at high intensity and crushing all in their path.

Each band member is amazing in their own right. Steve Di Giorgio is probably responsible for a lot of people finding this band: the guy has been all over the place in the past 20 years, and this was where he got his start. The bass isn't quite as virtuosic as can be seen in his later works, but it's still very good, and while not the most technical he's ever done, it's very interesting and well-composed. A good bass sound that's high in the mix can do a lot for an album, and it does a lot for this one. I can't think of many (or even any) thrash albums with a bass quite as prominent as the one exhibited here. It adds a lot of nuance to the album, but doesn't do so at the expense of any heaviness or "brutality". It also works well with the guitar. Di Giorgio isn't just following the guitar, but he's not going off in another direction counterproductive to the songs either. There are, however, occasional short bass solos scattered throughout the album, which are great and work much better than I would have expected for this kind of album). This bass work and Darren Travis' falsetto are the two things that make this album really stand out.

Darren Travis handles both vocals and half the guitars in this, both of which are stellar. The riffwork is pretty standard for this period, namely very good. His vocals are a bit more unique. A lot of it's a fairly standard raspy proto-death stuff, but he also sometimes does an awesome sort of shrieking falsetto. Said falsetto is of the really high raspy sort, reminding of Sheepdog of Razor or Kenn Nardi of Anacrusis. One song where it particularly stands out is "Torture" where it's used a lot to considerable effect. The man sounds like he's being tortured while singing about it. This falsetto and the bass work are the two things that make this album really stand out. Without them, it'd still be good, but with them it's both good and interesting.

Jon Allen on drums is in the uncomfortable position of being a very good musician next to two incredible ones here. Still, he puts in a very good performance, keeping a steady groove at speeds in excess of 200 bpm, and being generally up to the task of the physically strenuous job of thrash drummer. His double bass work, which shows up in spots, is quite impressive. He doesn't do incredibly progressive things here, but in a way, that's a good thing. With the more wild acrobatics of the other two members, Allen keeps the affair grounded, which you do need a little bit of on this end of the subgenre.

Remember when I said above there were "more or less" no bad tracks? We now come to the "more or less": the last track on the album. Now, I think I can see what Sadus were trying to do with this, but it doesn't really work, and is the reason I can't give this album a 9/10 or more. Closing with an instrumental is something that can work on an album. Maybe it even could have worked on this one, though I rather doubt it. The problem isn't with the song, either, it concerns the structure of an album. When you want something to really hit home, send off the message of the album loud and clear, you've got to end it with a real bang. Kreator and Slayer knew this much, finishing off their respective most famous albums in this category of thrash with Under the Guillotine and Raining Blood. Both of those were among the strongest tracks in the album. I suspect Reign in Blood wouldn't have the reputation it has today had a different track been the closer. What Sadus, perhaps inadvertently, have done here, is to create a violent onslaught of an album that doesn't let up on you, until the last track comes, and, well, lets up. What would fit here is a blisteringly violent track, an affirmation of the album's goal and message, namely to smash your face in. Instead, we got a vaguely creepy-sounding ambient instrumental. This does not affirm a crushing thrash metal album, it affirms something rather more cerebral and "modern". This isn't an intrinsically bad thing, and it might have worked as an intro of some kind, but it simply doesn't fit where it is.

At its core, Illusions is a quality slab of violent unrelenting 80s thrash metal. It stands a bit apart from the pack by very good performances and an somewhat surprising undercurrent of creativity. Aside from the impressive task of being this heavy for a sustained about of time, It's quite good at keeping up the tricky balancing act of being comparatively sophisticated without sacrificing an iota of face-melting, and that's no easy task. If you like the heavier side of thrash, or just like extreme metal in general, this will definitely be up your alley.