January 2022 Feature Release – The Pit Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Pit has been nominated by Ben. It's 1988's classic "Illusions" debut album from Californian tech thrash outfit Sadus, a band that I've always loved & admired. Please note that this record is known as "Chemical Exposure" on Spotify.

https://metal.academy/releases/2979

I did my review, here's its summary:

With this album, thrash has reached the ultimate limit of furious velocity! This is the beginning of my review journey from their chaotic debut Illusions (also known as Chemical Exposure) to their swan song-ish album Out for Blood. Darren Travis performs lightning-fast riffs and awesome raw vocals, while Steve Di Giorgio foreshadows his later supreme bass talent. Scream "Slayer" all you want, but with Illusions, Sadus has played some of the fastest, most technical and memorable thrash I've heard in my life. Despite some minor errors in mixing, this is a perfect thrash album, like "in your f***ing face" thrash that very few bands executed so greatly. Any fan of Dark Angel, Slayer, or Kreator, should take a break from those bands and listen to this holy grail of thrash!

5/5

Revisited this earlier and recalled my feelings on the album more or less immediately.

The album that allegedly got the band signed to Roadrunner after shifting some 7,000 copies is to all intent and purpose pure unadulterated violence. Now, I will not go off and join my peers on the site in lavishing praise on Illusions. In fact, I will highlight that this is some sloppy sounding thrash metal even by late 80’s standards. Yes, I get that this is a massive part of the appeal and I enjoy some raw and energetic thrash / proto-death metal as much as the next man or woman, the fact is though that there are a couple of major distractions on the sound on some tracks here.

The drums start to sound like claps as album opener Certain Death gets to around halfway through, just for a few moments, not for the entire track thereafter but nonetheless I find this off-putting and sort of ruins the start of the album for me. I am also not convinced that the band had their timing correct for all the tracks. Granted it is so ridiculously fast and has the pacing of a jet engine that you hardly notice but when the band get to a less high tempo pace and go a little more industrious (not technical - more on that in a minute) is where the cracks do start to show. I will put this down to the maturity levels of the band and this being their first full-length and will also caveat that when they are on point – which at times they are – they are unstoppable. I am thinking some of this is also down to the over-reliance on DiGiorgio and his bass which I am nearly sure causes flux in the rhythm and timing on more than one occasion.

This “technical” tag bothers me that I see get associated with the release also. The fact that this album has a heavy bass presence does not mean that this is a technical thrash metal record. I see DiGiorgio’s input as being almost a third guitar – most certainly a second rhythm guitar that makes the frenetic pace sound a lot meatier than it would otherwise. You could argue it gets all proggy on the opening bars to the title track but again this does not make it technical, just well-played.

Sadus’ debut is not for me in all honesty. As much as there are principles of thrash metal here that I would largely praise and defend in most circumstances, Illusions does precisely as the meaning of the title suggests and tries to distract away from its issues with pure speed and violence and it just does not work for me.

3/5

Sadus need to slow down if they don't wanna get pulled over by the cops!

In all seriousness though, Sadus' debut record Illusions is one that tries to do too much in the name of progressive thrash metal, but misses the mark by having some of the worst framing I've heard in a late 80s thrash metal album. Songs will sporadically change tempos, forms and styles on a whim with nothing to suggest there was even a hint of a through line considered in the writing process. Every song begins with a moderate groove and may turn into something great, but without warning the tunes deviate into this blistering fast thrash groove that is persistent throughout the track. The intro's are rarely referenced again, either lyrically or thematically and it makes them feel like Sadus just wasting our time. 

The production is clean and you can hear every single note played by the guitar, percussion and even bass. And while I am a little more lenient towards unbridled noise collages by the lead guitar solos in this thrash metal style, the vocals sound fucking atrocious! It's everything that I hate about Tom Araya's slurred vocals on the first three Slayer album's, but on a line of blow. There is zero diction to the delivery. I could perform the vocals on this record with the same level of proficiency on the day I had my wisdom teeth pulled out and my mouth was filled with cotton swabs. 

I think that in 2022, with bands like Vektor now apart of the lexicon of tech-thrash, I have become increasingly intrigued by the tag of that subgenre as being more progressive. However, like with death metal, that might not always be the case. This is bog standard thrash metal that is propped up only by some cleaner production than its contemporaries. Those opening grooves at the beginning of each track make me hopeful that Sadus might do something unique, but every time it just goes back to the same idea as before. For me, Illusions is the equivalent of a restaurant with good food but horrible service; you may ask yourself why you don't go back to that place on the corner as often because the food is really good, but then you meet the people who work there. And in this case, I continue to fall for it nine more times. When will you learn your lesson?

5/10

It's been fun to return to this record after so many years. I still really enjoy it too. It's not a perfect thrash album as it has its flaws but its very hard to deny the youthful electricity on display. It's very obvious that Sadus decided to make it their own personal mission to outdo "Reign In Blood" & "Darkness Descends" in the speed department as they really throw the kitchen sink at it. The consistently high velocity makes the short run time pretty much essential & ensures that I don't get bored. The execution & production are a little inconsistent & lack the polish of the tier ones. Although Steve DiGiorgio's bass playing is a real highlight of the Sadus sound, I have to say that he doesn't sit all that well in the mix here. He's too far forward in my opinion. I do love Darren Travis' psychotic vocals though. Boy he can spit out some words in quick succession & the Slayer-esque guitar solos take some of these songs to another level of extremity. I think the main appeal of a record like "Illusions" is that it just sums up the era so beautifully, a time that I was going through the most exciting period of musical discovery in my lifetime & one that I'll always treasure.

4/5