SADUS – The Shadow Inside

RELEASE YEAR: 2023

BAND URL: https://sadusofficial.bandcamp.com/

Before the universally regarded as one of the most brilliant bassists in heavy metal, Steven “you can hear my bass louder than any other instrument in the mix” Di Giorgio, appeared in Death’s seminal Human¹⁹⁹¹ (by many regarded as their magnum opus) he had begun in the Californian technical deathrash ensemble Sadus, whose 6th album, The Shadow Inside²⁰²³ (by many a reviewer regarded as a total return to form) was released on November 17th via the mighty Nuclear Blast Records, and the obvious question that comes to mind would be: is this work so good as to be worthy of reviewing nearly 1.5 years later? Well, while I freely admit that it is the very first Sadus recording I have ever laid my ears upon, after 4 consecutive spins, I have to submit that it is a good album indeed, definitely good enough to be reviewed here.

The name Sadus, according to Encyclopedia Metallum, is taken from Frank Herbert’s Dune novel, where Sadus is the Fremen (a group of people in the Dune universe) word for “judges”. The title is used to refer to holy judges, equivalent to saints, but the lyrics that grace 2 demos D.T.P¹⁹⁸⁷, Certain Death¹⁹⁸⁷ and the Sadus Records-released debut Illusions¹⁹⁸⁸ were far from saintly, founders DiGiorgio, Darren Travis (vocals, guitars) Rob Moore (guitars-1994) and Jonathan Wayne Allen (drums) focusing on the dark side of human nature to the tune of a perfect mix of death and thrash metal, a formula they would expand on for the subsequent Swallowed In Black¹⁹⁹⁰ and A Vision Of Misery¹⁹⁹² (both via Roadracer Records), and, finally, on Elements Of Anger¹⁹⁹⁷ (Mascot Records) where they settled for technical thrash which they continued on Out For Blood²⁰⁰⁶ (Mascot Records) and now, on “The Shadow Inside”, with only Travis and Allen (who will have left in 2024) the only remaining founders in 2023, joined by Possessed guitarist Claudeous Creamer for the creation of their 6th album.

What’s cool about “The Shadow Inside” is that, while it is, essentially, a very aggressive technical thrash metal album, it’s actually quite versatile at that, the 1,2 punches of “First Blood” and “Scorched And Burnt” before the insanely fast and furious “It’s The Sickness” (where I’d swear the distorted declamation sounds like Dave Mustaine) gives way to the almost progressive “Ride The Knife” with strong Panteric overtones, but the best is yet to come with the 2nd half clearly better than the first (which could have used more variation) and “The Devil In Me”, “No Peace” and “New Beginnings” some of the finest thrash anthems you can conceive, as we recall some classic Dark Angel, Testament, Sepultura, Metallica, Megadeth and Kreator have ever had on offer, but, most comparatively, it’s like Slayer’s Reign In Blood¹⁹⁸⁶ except every track is like “Angel Of Death”, “Altar Of Sacrifice” or the title in terms of length and complexity.

Not familiar with any prior albums, I can’t say that “The Shadow Inside” is Sadus’ magnum opus but I wouldn’t be surprised if other people thought it to be because this is one Molotov cocktail of an uncompromising technical thrashfest!