Metal Hammer; Extra Thrash special-2/1992
Over the years, the band has never broken out of the underground scene. Antony Noguera ponders with bassist Steve DiGiorgio.
Sadus are not the best know of the current crop of U.S. Thrashers making a bid for the favour of the hearts and wallets of the world’s rivetheads. In fact they’re little short of criminally ignored. For instance, did you know that far from being a bunch of third generation teenage metallers, they’ve actually been around for at least eight years? Hell, they’re not even kids!
"No, we’re very well nearly thirty-somethings!" explains the band’s soft-spoken bassist Steve DiGiorgio. "But not quite! We’re all in our late twenties."
The band first got together way back in 1984 hot on the tail of excitement, generated by the first wave of Bay Area thrash metal. Sadus were there when metallica were playing their ground-braking wares on the classic "Kill ‘em All For One" tour. They grew up in the same scene so it’s not surprising that they should end up playing energetic Speed/ Trash Metal with a deathly edge. What is surprising is that after being together for so long, they remain with the exact same line-up that they had from day one. Steve puts it down to the fact that they all grew up in the same area and purely and simply get on together: "The four of us are just into the same things and like the same kind of music".
Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, Sadus have become known as a death metal band, a label which really doesn’t do them any favours any more. Sadus’ singer Darren Travis can gargle with the best of ‘em but more importantly knows when the time is right to inject a dash of melody into the proceedings. He’s not afraid of melody and it’s a good thing too, judging by the powerlaced growl he manages to come up with for the band’s latest album, "A Vision of Misery". Most of the time he sounds more like Exodus’ Steve Souza rather than the king of the Deathster bark brigade, John Tardy.
Sadus have got their own sound that lies somewhere between the camps of Death, Speed, and Thrash metal, but is a copy of none. However, after eight years in the scene with only a relatively small amount of success to show for it, do Sadus think that the whole scene is just going through the motions these days?
"Well, if thrash isn't dead now, it soon will be," Steve concurs with a hint of gloominess. "But you know, we never really thought that we were part of that whole scene. Especially not the Death Metal side of things. I don't see the point in that kind of stuff. I mean, we toured with Sepultura but I don't really see us in that kind of category." A statement which is clearly borne out on the new album which sees Sadus steering well clear of any unnecessary Trash-isms whilst still retaining a brutal clean-kill edge.
Sadus really haven't exactly been the luckiest buggers in the world lately. For instance, their last European shows were unceremoniously cut short when their recordcompany decided, perhaps wisely under the circumstances, that carrying on with some planned shows in the midst of war-torn Yugoslavia wasn't such a hot idea. "yeah, that was a really weird situation to be in because we had another load of shows to do with Morbid Angel. After the gigs in Yugoslavia were pulled it would've meant us hanging around in Europe for a month with nothing to do, so they said 'Home you go;'-After which the band turned to the writing of the follow-up to their well-received albums "Swallowed in Black" and "Chemical Exposure".
Although the new album is more defined than its predecessors, Steve maintains that the band don't actually examine what they're doing when they're writing. "We don't explain our stuff too much. Our sound is just a result of the four of us playing in a room together. " A Vision of Misery" is obviously a better album then "Swallowed in Black," admits the self-confessed studio freak. "But I'm not going to say that it's anything very different in style to what we've done before. Sadus are just a tight and powerful metal band and I can't see that changing to any great degree."
'A Vision of Misery'. Bit of a sad title isn’t it? Why are the chaps so obsessed with being miserable? "Maybe it's something to do with the generation that we're part of," he laughs. "Maybe everyone the same age as us is miserable!" Keep smiling eh?
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