The Shadow Inside

6 long years of effort between Darren and Jon have culminated into 50 minutes of Sadus' best work since 1992. The Shadow Inside is among albums such as Testament's The Formation Of Damnation, Exodus' Tempo Of The Damned, and Sadus' very own Out For Blood as the new wave of music from these classic thrash bands.

Straight into the first track, "First Blood" serves as the thrashing introduction to a new era of fast riffs from Sadus. The first two minutes of this track serves as the album's own intro in the same way that "Delusions Of Savior" begins Slayer's Repentless, gradually building into the first song. The rest of the track is filled with both ridiculously fast riffs and groovy mid-tempo riffs, interwoven with each other in typical Sadus fashion.

The rest of the album follows this example, thrashy riffs and groovy riffs complementing each other with some progressive songwriting elements and extremely technical playing. The formula is so strong that even "The Shadow Inside" has its own intro track "New Beginnings". One note about the songwriting: don't assume you took the wrong pill when you hear the intro of "Ride The Knife" in the middle of "The Devil In Me", it's there. I couldn't tell you the intention of it, but I enjoy the echo of riffs happening throughout this album.

On this album, Jon throws everything he has at the drumheads and Darren is shrieking, tickling the ivory on synths, and ripping on his Deans, SP Custom, and fills in for Steve on a Rickenbacker. The guest feature on "Anarchy" is done well as the low gutturals done by Juan Urteaga contrast Darren's approach and add variety to the track. The other feature is Possessed's Claudeous Creamer shredding on "No Peace", which is done with taste as the melodic sensibility adds a layer on top of the heavy track underneath it.

Best Tracks:
"Scorched And Burnt" (An ENT's worst nightmare and my new favorite Sadus song)
"Ride The Knife"
"The Shadow Inside"

I must say I'm very pleased that my theory of Sadus's 2022 single "It's the Sickness" (which I reviewed here on Metal Archives in June 2023) being a teaser for more music to come turned out to be correct. I think most people would've automatically assumed it was, but the unveiling of a new Sadus album was still a nice surprise. 17 years after Out for Blood was released and ended up disappointing many Sadus fans, the band was able to make up for it with this amazing comeback of an album titled The Shadow Inside. The reviews of this album currently out there are very mixed, and I'll touch upon why that's the case. Despite that, The Shadow Inside is worth at least one thorough listening and some grace from both fans and critics due to circumstances beyond the control of Darren Travis and Jon Allen.

November 18th, 2022: Sadus released a new single titled "It's the Sickness" after repeatedly publishing teasers implying that something was on the way. Obviously, that something was new music. The song was welcomed with open arms by the fans, especially those who have been patiently waiting for something to bridge the lengthy time gap between the release of 2006's Out for Blood and 2022. With this came the hopes of more new music collectively shared by those who were impressed by the single.

September 1st, 2023: Fast forward almost 10 months and another single titled "Ride the Knife" was released along with the official news that the next full-length offering, The Shadow Inside, would be out on November 17th, 2023. The cat was let out of the bag, and the reactions were on par with those of when "It's the Sickness" was released: pure excitement and overwhelming approval.

November 17th, 2023: The big day arrived. 364 days after the teaser track "It's the Sickness" blessed the ears of so many metalheads. The song "Scorched and Burnt" was the final pre-album release single to be published on October 13th, 2023 to further the hype. Once the album was finally out, the reviews started brewing.

Before I touch upon what others have been saying about The Shadow Inside, I have to give my own opinions on it. Something important to remember is that this album, like any other album, has its strengths and weaknesses. The prominent strengths are the vocals and songwriting while the weaknesses revolve more around production and capabilities of Darren and Jon when compared to past Sadus releases. I will try my best to emphasize that some of the weaknesses were beyond the band's control and that they had to make due with what they had. At the same time, I will not hesitate to critique them in a fair manner.

Darren Travis's vocals have aged very well and haven't show much decay. That was apparent to me when I first heard "It's the Sickness". His screams go as high as those heard on Sadus's first few full-lengths. He still has that snarling shriek that set him apart from many other thrash metal vocalists of the '80s and '90s. His vocals are like that for the entirety of the album, and I find it to be impressive that he can still achieve that 30+ years after the releases of Sadus's most critically acclaimed albums.

Speaking of vocals, some guest vocals were provided on the track "Anarchy" by Juan Urteaga, who produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered The Shadow Inside. It's cool to see Juan featured again on a Sadus album as he previously provided guest vocals, engineering, and mixing on Out for Blood. Juan's vocals are deeper than Darren's, and are more suited for death metal. That does not surprise me given that all of the bands he's been a vocalist for have had death metal as a significant part of their sound. Juan's death growls perfectly complement Darren's high shrieks.

The songwriting has a solid foundation. The majority of the tracks follow a thrash metal route with plenty of technical, speedy riffs. Even though there are hints of it, the death metal side is not as present riff-wise when compared to albums like Illusions (or Chemical Exposure; whichever album name you choose to honor) and Swallowed in Black. Any death metal aspects serve more as occasional album enhancers to ensure that the band's roots are not left to rot. There is also thrash riffing that's more straightforward and lacks the technical side of things. The same ideas can be said for the drumming. There's also some deviations from the thrash metal style. Particularly in the tracks "First Blood", "New Beginnings", and "The Shadow Inside". "First Blood" and the title track both start out similar to a song like "Lack of Comprehension" by Death. Those songs start off with intriguing guitar licks devoid of any distortion, and then kick into blazing, distorted riffage. "New Beginnings", on the other hand, contains no distortion on the guitars whatsoever. This variety is not bad by any means, but it is different for Sadus standards.

Now onto the weaknesses/points of critique from myself and others. The #1 biggest detractor from The Shadow Inside involves the bass guitar. As any Sadus fan should know by now, legendary bassist Steve DiGiorgio, who had been a member of Sadus since its inception and played on all their albums up to Out for Blood, is no longer a member and did not perform on this album. As of right now, it is believed that Darren Travis handled the bass duties. The reason I word it like that is because none of the available formats include information on the specific instrument roles for Darren Travis or Jon Allen. I have no supporting evidence to claim Darren assumed responsibility for laying down bass tracks. Regardless, Steve's absence is impossible to ignore. His iconic fretless bass made Sadus a unique act in the worlds of death/thrash metal and technical thrash metal. Those are some shoes that are extremely difficult/damn near impossible to fill.

Other detractors include the production and some minor gripes with the songwriting. As I had expressed in my review of the 2022 single "It's the Sickness", the bass guitar was buried in the mix. The same can be said for the overwhelming majority of this album. The exceptions to this are more towards the end with "New Beginnings" being the prime example. Many arguments for the reason of this can be presented. Some may argue that this was done intentionally out of respect for Steve so his bass playing and overall impact would not be co-opted by somebody else. Others may argue there's nothing that will ever fill the void of Steve's absence, so the bass might as well be equally represented in the mix to add some depth and low end rumble to the music. I find both arguments to be reasonable, but my overall opinions lean more towards the second hypothetical argument I offered. The guitar solos could've been more up front in the mix, especially with Claudeous Creamer's guest guitar solo on "No Peace". If you're going to have a current member of death/thrash metal legends Possessed featured on your album, make sure he gets the spotlight.

Some reviewers have expressed disdain for some of the songwriting claiming that it's inhibited due to repetitiveness and uninspired riffing. To a degree, I could get behind these arguments, but I don't think they severely hinder the songs' overall quality. Some things to take into account are age and the passage of time in the world of metal. It is no secret that metal, especially thrash metal and death metal, is very physically demanding of its drummers. As a drummer ages, they are at the mercy of how much stamina and strength they retain. This has a direct impact on tempos and technicality. For being in his mid 50s, Jon doesn't show any extreme signs of slowing down musically. Sure, maybe he didn't belt out the supersonic speeds found on Illusions, but I think he's held up very well, just like Darren.

Remember the topic of straightforward thrash riffing I mentioned earlier? Some have interpreted that as uninspired. That is something I don't agree with. As time passed since Sadus's formation, there have been many new thrash acts to emerge. Some have added their own flavor to the genre, and then there have been others who've beaten the same tropes right into the ground. Also, how "original" or "unoriginal" a thrash metal album may sound depends on what its listener has previously heard, how much of it, and what similar acts the listener has come across. My point being is that it can be difficult nowadays to sound "original" after there's been so much metal to come around. Need I mention the '80s and '90s were points in time where there was a huge surge of bands forming and releasing stuff?

While I can cut some slack for uninspired writing, I'm going to be strict when it comes to repetitiveness due to Sadus's reputation for being innovative musicians. I picked up on some tidbits of repetitiveness in The Shadow Inside. I argue that there's no excuse for that because of how malleable guitar riffs are. Rather than playing the same riff 4 times per measure, 2 of the times could be spent playing a riff and the other 2 could be spent playing a modified version or completely different riff. I'll chalk the issues of repetitiveness up to an effect of Steve DiGiorgio's absence and the fact that Sadus hasn't put out an album in over a decade prior to this one.

Was Sadus's The Shadow Inside THE comeback album of the year for 2023? Probably not. Was it a killer album well worth the wait? You betcha! Despite some of its flaws and only having 2/3 (or 1/2 if you want to include Rob Moore) of the core Sadus lineup, the band did an fantastic job delivering an album that seemed to be in development hell for the longest time. Thankfully, Darren Travis and Jon Allen were able to overcome the obstacles that prevented this thrashterpiece from being released sooner. Check it out when you get the chance. Favorite tracks: It's the Sickness, Anarchy, and No Peace.

Around the promotional times of "Out For Blood", Steve DiGiorgio was very optimistic about the future of Sadus and assured that the band would return to the stage full-time. Well...as you can guess, few of these things actually came into effect. Firstly, a lot of time has passed since those words, and the Americans themselves quite quickly took another break, longer than ever before; two, when the band finally started composing and recording the long-awaited longplay, the main person involved...was no longer in the band's line-up. However, this did not prevent further activities. Despite this risky (and for a large part of the people - absurd) move, Darren Travis and Jon Allen attained one's end in such a modest line-up and "The Shadow Inside" was released in 2023.

But why release such albums? There won't be a greater career or overall stability for Sadus, while the madness and unusual technique left these gentlemen centuries ago - which is not helped by the lack of employment of a full-time bassist. What exactly do I mean? Moreover, "The Shadow Inside" is surprisingly bland, terribly sterile and technically poor material - completely incompatible with their early recordings. The compositions lack ideas for riffs, variety in tempo, audible bass (or rather its presence - yes, even that is a problem), catchy motifs and a natural sound. And you can still make some allowances for slowing down at speed, after all, age imposes certain limitations, but not for such a high number of overused, thrash metal clichés and generally terribly plastic production. Sure, with the singles "It's The Sickness", "Ride The Knife", "Anarchy" and "Scorched And Burnt" you can shed a tear for the times gone by (because they seem to have the fewest monotonous fragments), although it doesn't change much when there is no straight power in this music and little of it's memorable. "The Shadow Inside" is also not helped by the previously mentioned, extremely modestly audible bass (also recorded by Darren), which is scandalously pushed under the guitars, appearing more sensibly only in "The Devil In Me" and the miniature "New Beginnings".

After seventeen years of releasing silence, Darren Travis and Jon Allen returned to normality as a Sadus, but in a rather unsophisticated and imitative style. Yes, "The Shadow Inside" looks better and more coherent than its two predecessors, although it has little to do with the essence of Sadus' sound. One gets the impression of dealing with a product that only traces the majesty of this legend. Or maybe I just miss DiGiorgio and the magic of those times?

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal