Swallowed in Black

When anger turns to black… yeah, our heroes toned it down, but just a bit, for the album reviewed here. They didn’t embrace the death metal idea whole-heartedly, contrary to the expectations, and gave their uncompromising death/thrashy hybrid a really nice technical colouring. No, the black didn’t swallow them as Travis timely put an end to his communications with Oystein Aarseth aka Euronymous (R.I.P.) before his team managed to turn to one of the pioneers of the already stirring at the time in Norway second wave of black metal…

kidding of course; such a scenario never existed, and black here is just a colour connotation, and probably an allusion to the musicians’ state of mind as, regardless of the hyper-active delivery witnessed for a large portion of the time, there’s this dark morose vibe that can be detected without too much strain on the side of the listener. If said listener comes from the the debut worship camp, he/she should have no problems savouring this opus here as the hyper-active skeleton of the first showing has been preserved, albeit enhanced with much more stylish, more intricate guitar work. It’s a sheer wonder to listen to the previously served “illusions” spiced with the more exuberant, more technical riff-patterns.

The hectic nervy rhythms enrapture the fan from the get-go the latter also smitten by the very speedy delivery “Man Infestation” sounding like a twisted, heightened mutation from the previous offering with Harris shouting in an even more demented fashion; the authoritative bass inclusions of DiGiorgio are by all means worth mentioning early since they occupy quite a bit of space without overshadowing the insane shredding of his comrades the latter brought to an early culmination on the short frenetic delight “Last Abide”. “False Incarnation” creates a “false” impression of safety from the incessant downpour with its creepy macabre, much slower layout, a really effective stopover from the thrilling ride which becomes even less predictable on the brilliant serpentine, also alluringly melodic “Images”, and especially on “Arise”, a grand more ambitious showdown the guys altering the pace in a quick dizzying succession with elaborate riff-knots winding and unwinding under the rampant hyper-active leitmotifs, the doomy closure a fine more officiant way to wrap on this early highlight from the technical death/thrash roster.

In fact, almost every single track here could be viewed a highlight including these short, but ultimately compelling technicallers (“Powers of Hate”, “Oracle of Obmission”) which prick your consciousness in a more insistent, more neurotic manner bringing the death/thrash wedlock on a higher pedestal, boding images, definitely not illusions, of an everlasting bond between those two. Again, listening to this more complex but equally exhausting opus one can only marvel at the guys’ skill in generating nearly the same amount of extremity as the one from the debut, staying true to their initially chosen stance by giving it a desirable, more technical veneer.

As much as I want to ascribe this recording enormous pioneering merits, I can’t possibly ignore the contribution of other gifted practitioners (Hellwitch, Atheist, Vacant Grave, Revenant, Nocturnus, Hexx, etc.) who all emerged at the same time, determined to bring thrash and death metal to an arguably better, more intellectually-stimulating place. Apart from the mentioned Hexx, Sadus were the only other team from this batch who achieved technical/progressive illusion… sorry, illumination during a post-debut period; in other words, this process was a more or less gradual one in their camp, and logically continued after this album, unlike the majority of their mentioned colleagues who burst out just this once (at the time), filling the one-album-wonder department to the brim. “A Vision of Misery” was already a crowning achievement, the peak of all those early strives for technical/progressive death/thrash greatness on US soil, DiGiorgio bringing the band’s creative flair to the Death camp as well during his collaborations with Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P.). Contamination with grooves and other aggro elements was inevitable if a practitioner wanted to stay afloat during the 90’s, but “Elements of Anger” remains one of the more successful adaptation albums from this dark period, the band deftly translating their visions for the new generation.

Those updated visions were still alive some ten years later when their last so far instalment “Out for Blood” came out. It split the band’s fans into small warring factions with its compromising shared-among-a-few-currents delivery, a not very expected turn of events under the 00’s old school revival circumstances which didn’t exactly win them too many new fans. The Sadus saga is ongoing, that’s for sure; whether with entangled, mind-challenging rifforamas or with direct blitzkrieg crash courses, our friends in misery will carry on until all the colours of the rainbow fade to…

that’s right.