I see red and I see flames.
I see violently razor sharp edges that can slice open skin, organs, bone and muscle.
I see a hellish deformed beast of a figure letting out loud painful growls of agony and blasphemy.
I see a place lower than the deepest most claustrophobic pit of hellfire and brimstone.
I see the raw aggression and intensity of the force of a nuclear bomb multiplied by a hundred.
You can say I'm interpreting the album cover of THE MAGUS, when i am actually visualizing what I hear when I listen to this mass murderer of a debut album. More specifically, I am interpreting the Magus' ambience and atmosphere (red and flames), electric guitar (razor sharp edges), vocals (hellish beast), bass guitar (place lower than pit of hell), and drums (force of nuke x100).
Sadistik Exekution is not a black metal band. Atleast since 1994 with their second LP release appropriately (and accidentally) titled "We Are Death Fukk You!", It has been obviously known that Sadistik Exekution are first and foremost a death metal band.
The guitar riffs are more like insanely fast, down tuned, ever varying organized chaos, rather than the tremolo power chord, possessed chainsaw riffage more used by black metal bands, such as the great Bathory, black metal era Sodom, Sarcofago and other blasphemous acts such as Vulcano, Holocausto, Abhorer, Impiety, fellow Australians Destroyer 666 and Bestial Warlust, and then obviously Bestial Mockery, hence why the chainsaw metaphor. The bass guitar is not only audible, but also some of the best, gurgliest, most intense bass work I have ever heard. The drums may be fast and intense just like in black metal, however theres always various tempo changes and an overall heavier production sound, which is what you hear in death metal acts usually. However, the vocals, at least to me, are a balance of both black and death metal styles, not too low end growly, not too high end shrieky.
That being said, it still has a very dark and blasphemous black metal vibe and atmosphere to it. Maybe its the magic of the not so stellar overall production, maybe its the surprising dreadfulness and gloominess that settles within you as you continue to listen to the record. Whatever it is, the Magus somehow tends to capture the essence of black metal just as well as those inverted cross, leather and spikes clad black metal monsters I've previously mentioned have. Therefore, I can sort of understand why people mistook Sadistik Exekution to be a black metal band.
Moving on to my next point: this GODSEND (or shall I say 'SATANSEND') of a band lineup.
Each of the 4 members of this Insane lineup of Sadistik Exekution, made great use of their boundless talent and worked hard with it to present to us an extremely important, influential, creative, flavorful, and above all, fukking heavy and extreme metal release. But from what i can tell with their later releases, they had buckets of talent still to spare.
The men, the myths, the LEGENDS:
Rok, with his absolutely insane screams and growls that make me think of a barking bloody gory hell hound from... hell (like i haven't talked about hell enough). I consider him one of my favorite frontmen vocalists due to his stage presence and voice.
Sandy Vahdanni. So what if he Isnt the Reverend Kriss Hades we all know and love? His guitar riffs are a freakish combination of wrath, complexity and intensity, and really helps the album leave you with a lasting impression. And if that doesn't, his guitar solos will help drill the album into your head and then weld the drill in place.
DAVE FUKKING SLAVE, I may seem to be biased capitalizing his name, but that's because he is the most mentally insane member of Sad Ex, a band known for its mentally insane music. His bass guitar playing is a massive spiky mace to the stomach: extremely harsh, sharp, and bloody brutal at the low end.
Last but not least, Sloth. Sloth is definitely not a sloth unless appropriate. What I mean is that when a song really picks up its pace, he goes off at the drum kit like a machine gun goes off at its victim; fast and unrelenting. But as the music slows down, even to a crawl, hes a slow and power packing cannon, turning the drum kit into cannon fodder so to speak.
The reason why I have rated this 100%, is because Sadistik Exekution combined all of the great characteristics and styles of metal and also punk music released prior to the album, turned it up to 11, and somehow at the same time, created their own style and brand of metal they like to call "Death Mental", which they honed and perfected through their later releases.
If I somehow obtain a copy of this album in vinyl, I will die a happy man.
Thank you for reading this review, and as always:
"If you are a false, don't entry."
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