Artist: Sadist
Country: Italy
Label: Agonia Records
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2025
Originally debuting as one of the first bands on the cult but sometimes criticized Obscure Plasma Records label, that would later evolve into Avantgarde Music. Regardless of opinions, owner Roberto Mammarella had a nose for quality and, not in the least, unorthodox bands. Besides the most obvious, Mayhem’s ‘Live In Leipzig’ LP he also offered his followers first releases by Pan-Thy-Monium, House Of Usher, Rotting Christ and Eucharist (although this is claimed to be unofficial). But, amongst those first 7” EP’s there was also the ‘Black Screams’ 7” EP from a then new band, Sadist. A band that quickly rose to fame for its complex and adventurous approach to Death Metal.
‘Black Screams’ might not have yet the same bandwidth of unconventionality, Sadist was there early in terms of breaking away from the beaten path. Ironically, at the time of the release of their debut 7” EP, it was apparently necessary to state “featuring ex-Necrodeath drummer” on the cover. The exquisite and refined art of Sadist couldn’t be further away from the utter simplicity of Necrodeath.
While not all of the band’s rather extensive discography is equally good, especially the flirtations with groovy Nu-Metal on the ‘Lego’-album (2000) didn’t feel like the right match, the overall quality is remarkable. Given you are not a too straight-forward thinking Death Metal fan. Because from the very start, 1993’s ‘Above The Light’, the band offered a multi-coloured and extremely diverse Death Metal soundscape.
And now, some three decades and a half later, Sadist still feels just as fresh. The band’s latest record, ‘Something To Pierce’ is another highlight in its discography. For starters, it is an easy conclusion to draw that if you weren’t much into them before, this record is not going to change your mind. But, if you were enamoured by basically just anything the band did before, ‘Something To Pierce’ will again put you on a ride through exciting and marvellously rich Death Metal in the right Sadist tradition. With a constant shifting pace, hundreds of different riffs and melodies, a blending of vocal antics and wide range of additional instruments and non-Metal influences Sadist just feels like a true musical chameleon. Good grooves, middle-eastern melodies, flutes, jazzy rhythms, the occasional appearance of female vocals… it’s really all there. But if you’d think you stumbled upon one of the new Orphaned Land records you are way off. Although that musical parallels is not really that strange, Sadist is really still very much a Metal band. Some tracks might go quite far in their orientalism or otherwise non-Metal excursions, Sadist throws in lots of low growls and downright heavy-as-fuck riffs.
So don’t be bamboozled by all of the terms to describe the richness of the music, ‘Something To Pierce’ is a great Death Metal record for those who like to go for something that sounds a bit more exciting than the new Massacre album. Sadist may not necessarily be the most lauded experimental Death Metal band, that’s not even the case in their native Italy, but this somehow adds to the magic. To me Sadist always remains that exotic tidbit, that intoxicant that you take in occasionally to be completely spellbound.
