Sadus: A Vision of Misery (1992)

Sadus is a band that one would think I would absolutely love.  They are a Bay Area thrash metal band with a lot of technical riffs that frequently straddles the line to death metal.  Yet for some reason, I just never really got into them.  I had their monstrous 1990 album Swallowed in Black, and quite like it, but I never really LOVED it.  And that really does not make much sense.

Over the last few months though I have been listening to Swallowed in Black more and more and finding out how much it fucking slays.  And so there came an opportunity recently to add another Sadus album, and just like Swallowed, it is also a massive steamroller of an album.  Sadus has never been known for their melodic sensibilities.  They are much more about pummeling drums and a whirlwind of riffs.  The band comes armed with terrific musicians, including Steve DiGiorgio, the greatest bassist in metal history.  I could seriously listen to DiGiorgio all day long, he has a knack for catching the attention of the listener, which is something of a rare quality in a bassist.  Darren Travis provides the psychotic, howling vocals and teams with Rob Moore to throw riff after riff at the listener, with no real reprieve.  Most of the songs on this album are high-octane and loud as hell.  Toward the middle things slow down a little bit, but the band remained as aggressive as ever, even during slow portions.

What makes this album even more surprising is the fact that it came when a great many of the other thrash metal bands were either softening their sound or trying to copy Pantera.  Sadus did neither of those things on this release, though their latter day material does show an effort to remain relevant in an ever-changing metal landscape.  But that was far from the case in 1992 when this album was released. 

I will definitely be making an effort to check out some of the rest of Sadus's material and will be listening to the two albums I have from the band, which are apparently their better ones anyway, a lot more often.  It took a long time, but I think that I am finally getting into Sadus.

FMA Reviews: Mortör: Shoot 'Em Up

Originally reviewed here.

Canada's metal scene is another one that is somewhat underrated, but they have churned out some amazing groups across all genres. Crytopsy, Kataklysm, Voivod, Razor, Sacrifice, and Slaughter are just a few of the death and thrash metal bands that have called Canada home. Mortör is another band to have come up out of the Great White North.

Mortör has only been active for a few years at this point, but this is already the second full-length from the Quebec natives. All of the songs are fairly short, with only a couple breaking the four minute mark. This makes for a tight, punch-filled album that is unapologetic in its take-no-prisoners approach.

Based on the song titles and album art, it would appear that subtlety is not exactly Mortör's strong point. This is an album about war and death, make no mistake about it. The music does well to match the imagery. Mortör plays groove-laden death/thrash. Points of reference include Panzerchrist and Dekapitator. Mortör uses a lot of bottom-end in their riffs, giving a deep, rumbling feeling, not unlike the sound of tanks on the move. That added to the precise rhythms of the riffs give off a mechanical vibe. Mortör is a war machine.

The only real complaint I can even come up with is that the songs tend to run together after awhile and there is no real standout here. There is no one moment that I think back to as a great moment after the album is over. Although the dueling guitar melodies in "Locked and Loaded" come close.

Yet another impressive Canadian band. This band has a bright future.

Field Guide to Retro-Thrash Metal Bands

I am a fan of thrash metal. I believe I have made that fairly clear throughout this blog. Retro Thrash has emerged in recent years, and though it's day in the sun is receding somewhat, I felt it would be a good idea to expose some of the groups for those seeking out new metal.

BONDED BY BLOOD
Habitat: Pomona, California
Defining Audio Characteristics: Early Exodus gone progressive metal
Best Output: Exiled to Earth

DEVASTATOR
Habitat: Somewhere in Florida
Defining Audio Characteristics: Blackened Thrash metal steamroller
Best Output: Nuclear Proliferation

EVILE
Habitat: Huddersfield, England
Defining Audio Characteristics: Middle-Period Slayer-style crunch on steroids
Best Output: Infected Nations

GAMA BOMB
Habitat: Newry, Northern Ireland
Defining Audio Characteristics: 1950's pulp sci-fi lyrics over Anthrax-meets-Suicidal Tendencies style party thrash
Best Output: Tales from the Grave in Space

LICH KING
Habitat: Amherst, Massachusetts
Defining Audio Characteristics: Goofy party thrash with a preference toward lyrics about zombies, sci-fi movies and cereal?
Best Output: Necromantic Maelstrom

MERCILESS DEATH
Habitat: Canyon Country, California
Defining Audio Characteristics: Dark Angel-style rifftastic thrash metal performing the soundtrack to a particularly gory George A. Romero movie
Best Output: Realm of Terror

NOCTURNAL FEAR
Habitat: Detroit, Michigan
Defining Audio Characteristics: The Motor City Sodom
Best Output: Code of Violence

SKELETONWITCH
Habitat: Athens, Ohio
Defining Audio Characteristics: Mastodon covering early Venom and Hellhammer
Best Output: Breathing the Fire

TOXIC HOLOCAUST
Habitat: Portland, Oregon
Defining Audio Characteristics: The bastard offspring of Hellhammer, Venom, and Bathory out for revenge against the society that spurned it
Best Output: An Overdose of Death

WARBRINGER
Habitat: Newbury Park, California
Defining Audio Characteristics: Brutal thrash in the vein of Demolition Hammer, Morbid Saint, and German bands meeting the sound of an epic tank battle
Best Output: Waking Into Nightmares

Poll Results: Favorite Big 4 Debut

Well it's pretty obvious most of you are sheeple. Metallica's Kill 'Em All won in a landslide. I expected as much. I'm just kidding about the sheeple remark but this was definitely a predictable poll.

The full results:
Metallica: Kill 'Em All: 8 votes
Megadeth: Killing is My Business: 3 votes
Slayer: Show No Mercy: 2 votes
Anthrax: Fistful of Metal: 1 vote

My own feelings are that the Megadeth debut is not one of their better albums. It's good, but it's not one of my favorites and I love Megadeth. Anthrax to me is a step below the other Top 3 bands. When given the choice I would pick any of the other three over Anthrax. Not to say I don't like them, Among the Living is a great album and so are several others, they are just not quite as good.

So, to me, it comes down to Slayer and Metallica. Metallica's debut is certainly excellent, fully-formed thrash/speed metal. It is truly an amazing debut. But Slayer has a kind of NWOBHM/thrash hybrid with their debut. Their material prior to Reign in Blood owes a lot to Venom. My tastes change quite a bit. Right now, I would honestly say the Slayer debut is my favorite.

P.S. One of the people voting for Slayer was my fiancee. I was ranting about Metallica having all the votes early on.

Top 5 Thrash Metal Ballads

Well I was going to link to an article on the Deciblog but I can't find it anymore and I get a 404 error all the time.

Anyway, as I recall, there was an article on the Deciblog naming the writer's top 5 thrash metal ballads. I only remember three of them off the top of my head: Anthrax: "Black Lodge", Metallica: "Fade to Black", and Testament: "The Ballad". I agree with one of them. Anthrax's song is okay but I would not go so far as to call it one of my top 5 thrash metal ballads. Testament has produced better ballads than "The Ballad" in my opinion.

Here's my list:

5. Suicidal Tendencies: "Nobody Hears". Highly underrated song from a band that has not achieved the fame and recognition they deserve. It's a bit more experimental than their usual fare, but still sounds great.

4. Megadeth: "A Tout Le Monde". Soul-crushing. Plain and simple.

3. Pantera: "Cemetary Gates". Excellent song with an amazing riff and incredibly sad. Pantera was basically a thrash metal band at this point, but slowed down into groove metal on the next album.

2. Metallica: "Fade to Black". I do love this song and Ride the Lightning was the first metal album I ever bought. This song was a big reason why I practically wore it out.

1. Testament: "Return to Serenity". As I stated before, Testament has done better ballads. This is my favorite song of all time.

EDIT: Death Angel: "A Room with a View" and possibly Pantera: "Cemetary Gates" were the other two on the list.

Underrated Thrash Metal Albums Pt. 2 of 2

Picking up from yesterday, here's some more of my favorite lesser-known thrash metal albums:

EXHORDER: SLAUGHTER IN THE VATICAN
Exhorder has recently gotten some attention and praise from people who came to the realization that Pantera pretty much ripped off this band's sound in the early 1990's. Yes, Exhorder played a part in the creation of groove metal. Not to say that this is a groove metal album. This is a thrash metal album played at a slower speed than many of the band's contemporaries and it is one hell of an album. Later they would slow things even more and become a groove metal band, but this is just straight thrash.

KING'S-EVIL: DELETION OF HUMANOISE
This Japanese thrash metal band only released this one album, but it is a fucking good one. Featuring a sound that can best be described as Kreator meets Sodom, this album features some monster riffs and blazes by at a hundred miles an hour. The album is short but it still leaves the listener absolutely exhausted. Plus, it has one hell of a scary looking album cover. Bonus points.

NOCTURNAL BREED: FIELDS OF ROT
I have discussed in the past that Norway, despite being best known for black metal, also has a propensity to produce some amazing bands in other genres. This is their best thrash metal band, in my mind. Some of the best thrash metal riffs of the last twenty years or so are on this album. The band is clearly more influenced by the more brutal German scene than the U.S. scene. This is truly a brutal thrash metal album.

SABBAT: DREAMWEAVER-REFLECTIONS OF OUR YESTERDAYS
This album has to be one of my absolute favorite thrash metal albums. Sabbat clearly has a sound and style all their own. Martin Walkyier has one of the most unusual voices in thrash and a very unique style. His staccato rhythms match up well with the music cadences and present a catchy total listening experience. Sabbat is unfairly overlooked, mostly because they did not rise out of one of the major scenes.

HYADES: AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME
The younger Italian thrash metal band does not quite fit in with the recent thrash revival, however, they play a style heavily influenced by Anthrax and Exodus. It's fun and infectious thrash, yet it's still heavy. Hyades plays fast and hard, but it truly sounds like they are having a blast while doing it. This probably should be held up for the neo-thrash acts to look at to see a band carving their own sound out of their influences.

Underrated Thrash Metal Albums Pt. 1 of 2

I started last week with death metal. This week I will be looking at ten thrash metal albums. Thrash metal is my favorite genre, but this was hard to do. I had a tough time with the meaning of underrated on this genre, so I went with overlooked bands, groups not in the major scenes, or if they were, groups that have not received as much attention. I strongly considered Morbid Saint for this post, but I have covered them quite a bit in the past and that album is getting quite a bit of recognition now.

I also had a problem limiting it to ten, but here we go:

DEVASTATION: IDOLATRY
Brutal thrash metal is not a sub-genre that gets thrown around often. But if any band, and there will be several in these two posts, show more of what brutal thrash can do, it's this one. Devastation was completely overlooked in the late 1980's/early 1990's and that is a major shame. Along with Sadus, Morbid Saint, and Demolition Hammer, Devastation played a major part in bringing brutality to thrash metal in the U.S.

SLAUGHTER LORD: THRASH 'TIL DEATH '86-'87
This is not technically an album, but rather a collection of demos. The reason for that being that Slaughter Lord never released a full-length album. The Australian thrash metal band can be looked at as a major influence on the Australian war metal scene, along with Hobbs' Angel of Death, headed by Destroyer 666. Their thrash was razor-sharp and brutal. The band was even covered by At the Gates on some bonus tracks for their Slaughter of the Soul album. Yet, very few people have actually heard this band. Strange.

RAZOR: VIOLENT RESTITUTION
I have talked this album up a little bit in recent weeks and it fully deserves it. Even for a Canadian thrash metal band, Razor is overlooked. And that is a major shame because they were every bit as good and powerful as any of the Bay Area bands. Providing tons of catchy riffs and infectious songs, Razor had a long run of great albums. This is my personal favorite by the band. Razor really should be a better-known band.

INTRUDER: PSYCHO SAVANT
This technical progressive thrash metal band recorded an absolutely fantastic album. Easily the equal of luminaries such as Heathen and Anacrusis. However it came out at the wrong time. It was released after Metallica's black album and thrash was becoming a bad word. Poor timing. If it had been released a few years earlier, this band could have been legendary. As it is, this is a fantastic example of the style of thrash metal.

DEMOLITION HAMMER: EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE
I name-dropped them earlier and here they are. Either of the band's first two albums could have been considered, but I chose this one because it was more apparent that the band knew what they were doing. Demolition Hammer is extremely heavy and brutal thrash metal. It comes close to death metal, without straying over the line. It is however, fast and brutal. It's rare for thrash to achieve this type of brutality.

1980's Canadian Thrash Metal

I have not done a look at an overall scene for awhile. Over the last few months, I have been exploring the Canadian thrash metal scene of the 1980's. This has to be one of the most underrated thrash metal scenes. There was some damn good stuff coming out of Canada in the 1980's. This may not be a "scene" in the traditional sense, but rather a number of bands from one country playing a similar style of metal.

These are just a few of the more well-known bands, obviously there are others, but these bands are the ones I have been listening to the most. I considered putting Anvil in here, but decided they were more of a power/traditional metal band, despite some clear influences on the thrash metal genre in Canada.

EXCITER
Favorite Album: Heavy Metal Maniac
Ottawa, Ontario's Exciter is similar to Anvil in that they are not technically a thrash metal band, but they are a little closer, being a speed metal band. However, they are widely considered one of the first speed metal band and a major influence on thrash metal. This album is the band's debut after changing their name from hell Razor, released in 1983. It is melodic and fast, but still has some very clear thrash metal riffs. The band is still active.

SACRIFICE
Favorite Album: Forward to Termination
Quite possibly one of the most underrated thrash metal bands from the 1980's, Sacrifice formed in Toronto, Ontario. Every bit as lethal as Exodus, Testament, Overkill, and others, Sacrifice never quite got the attention they deserved. Featuring brutally fast, razor-sharp riffs, Sacrifice was an incredible band. This is the band's second album and is the album where the band really came into their own. Sacrifice recently reunited after breaking up for several years and released a new album.

SLAUGHTER
Favorite Album: Strappado
Also from Toronto, I have done several posts on this band. Slaughter is one of the major influences on death metal, performing a style of thrash metal similar to Hellhammer and often described as Black Sabbath playing punk rock. Their heavy, down-tuned riffs and extreme vocal styles were utilized by early progenitors of the sound. Chuck Schuldiner was even briefly a member of Slaughter. This is the band's only official album.

ANNIHILATOR
Favorite Album: Alice in Hell
Ottawa's Annihilator is often called the Canadian Van Halen. The band's only permanent member is guitarist Jeff Waters who writes all of the band's music. Waters is an extremely gifted musician, able to write incredibly catchy and infectious music. The band's downfall has been the inability to find a suitable vocalist for a long period of time. This is the band's debut album and the band is still active.

RAZOR
Favorite Album: Violent Restitution
Another extremely underrated thrash metal band is Razor, which formed in Guelph, Ontario in 1984. Sacrifice is at least mentioned frequently, Razor hardly gets any mention at all. The band has been extremely consistent in putting forth some excellent thrash metal albums. This is the band's seventh album, released in 1988. The band was also incredibly prolific in their early years, forming in 1984. The band reformed in 2005 with plans to record another album.

VOIVOD
Favorite Album: Nothingface
We finish things up with the most well-known Canadian thrash metal band, Jonquiere, Quebec's Voivod. One of the strangest bands to play thrash metal, and one of the earliest to begin adding progressive elements to their sound, Voivod was massively influential. The band crafted their own sound and a strong science fiction lyrical bent. This is the band's fifth album and is their masterpiece, it still has some elements of their thrash metal style, but is much more progressive. The band recently issued their final album, choosing not to carry forward after the death of principal songwriter and guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour.

Thrash Metal Debut Albums

A poster on the Encyclopedia Metallum recently asked which thrash metal debut album is your favorite. I had not really thought much of it prior to seeing that, but thrash metal, perhaps more than any other metal genre, has some truly fantastic debut albums. Many thrash metal bands produced their best albums first. This is true of groups like Exodus, Flotsam and Jetsam, Sarcofago, Death Angel, and several others. Arguably, even luminaries such as Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Testament produced their best albums first. At least, I have seen lots of people make those arguments.

The debut album is often a showcase for what the band is capable of. It is usually released when the band is young and thirsting for attention. Therefore, the band has written some killer material and is raw and aggressive. Since rawness and aggression are admirable qualities in thrash metal, the debut album is often embraced. Later, the band may become complacent and not as focused, or they may have found a certain niche to exploit and become too focused on that. That, I believe is the explanation for the debut album being more important in thrash metal.

So, what is my favorite thrash metal debut?

I am tempted to duck the question and say it depends on the day, but I really think Exodus's Bonded by Blood would have to be my favorite. The rest of the band's discography is such a dropoff after the debut. The debut is perfectly formed and one of the quintessential examples of thrash metal. It's a landmark album. If you wanted to have someone truly understand what thrash metal is, this would be the album to point to. Therefore, that's my answer.

2000's Favorite Thrash Albums

I have been somewhat busy trying to put together some lists of my favorite metal albums in various subgenres. Here is the first list: thrash metal. These are in alphabetical order, not any sort of hierarchy.

Atomizer: The Only Weapon of Choice-13 Odes to Power, Decimation, and Conquest: Australian war metal band on their catchiest, most memorable album.

Deceased...: As the Weird Travel On: Great traditional metal/thrash metal album by a band that not enough people know about.

Destroyer 666: Cold Steel...For an Iron Age: The best album of the decade, without a doubt.

Devastator: Nuclear Proliferation: Blackened thrash that steamrolls over the listener with ruthless efficiency.

Holy Moses: Agony of Death: The Queen of Thrash is back on the band's strongest album in years.

Hyades: And the Worst is Yet to Come: Relatively unknown Italian thrashers prove to be far better at retro thrash than the recent retro thrash scene in America.

Nocturnal Breed: Fields of Rot: Norwegian thrashers prove that there's more to their home country's metal scene than just black metal.

Nocturnal Fear: Code of Violence: American thrashers influenced by 1980's German thrash bands, a different type of retro thrash.

Razor of Occam: Homage to Martyrs: Side project of members of Destroyer 666 armed with brutal blackened thrash.

Victimizer: The Final Assault: Danish thrashers assault listeners with uncompromising, brutal metal.

Quick and Dirty Initial Impressions Roundup

I am going to run through a few of my recent pickups here. There have been a lot of big bands with new albums in the last few months.

DESTROYER 666: DEFIANCE

D666 is an amazing band. They keep putting out great recordings despite the fact that none of their such recordings sound much alike. On this one, the band takes its thrash influences and its black influences and mashes them together and adds some more melody. That's right, this album is significantly more melodic than their previous albums. This is quite possibly a finalist for Album of the Year. It's that good.

DYING FETUS: DESCEND INTO DEPRAVITY

Dying Fetus manages to further refine their sound. Dying Fetus was one of the early bands to dabble in slam death, but at this point they are far more technical and brutal, becoming more of a Suffocation-type band minus the dirge-like grooves. Dying Fetus seems to get better every album. I did not know what to expect when I picked this up, but I am glad I did.

THANATOS: JUSTIFIED GENOCIDE

Thanatos is one of the more underrated bands in the death/thrash scene, possibly because the band comes from Netherlands, which is not exactly a hotbed of metal activity. Thanatos is one of the more brutal, powerful bands to come out of the early death/thrash scene and the first Dutch extreme metal band. This album is incredible, powerful, and melodic. There are two bonus tracks, both of which made up the 7" vinyl EP.

VADER: NECROPOLIS

Vader is one of the most consistent extreme metal bands, as well as being the first major metal band from Poland. Not much to say here, if you enjoy Vader, you will enjoy this, if not, don't bother. Vader is one of my favorite bands, so I love the album.