When I was a wee tot, about a trillion years ago, back in the Paleolithic Age… er, the early ‘80s, I had a bunch of children’s books from a series called ValueTales. The basic gist of these end-table favorites for pediatrician’s offices the world around was that each book detailed a personality trait, told through the example of some historical figure that exemplified it – Jackie Robinson’s story was “courage,” for example; Helen Keller’s was “determination,” and so on.
Were that series to have continued on, and were it to have exhausted enough inspirational historical figures to embrace thrash metallers from the Golden Age, then The Value Of Persistence could have been the tale of Sadus. Or maybe The Value Of Obstinance. Or maybe The Value Of Just Not Giving A Shit And Doing What You Do Because You Damn Well Like It.
Forty years in now, half the classic-era band is no longer here: Sadus c. 2023 is down to drummer Jon Allen and guitarist/vocalist Darren Travis, now pulling triple duty in the absence of fretless bass wunderkind Steve DiGiorgio. But in whatever form – four-piece, trio, duo – Sadus soldiers on, still making what is more or less the same kind of thrash metal that made them ever-underrated heroes during their initial run from 1988 to 1993 or so, and finding an energy within it that they’ve lacked for the past few. After the underwhelming first return of 2006’s Out For Blood, The Shadow Inside is a better indicator of the power that still lies in the Sadus attack, a sharper, more focused, more aggressive affair than both Blood and Elements Of Anger, the best they’ve done in the thirty years of sporadic activity since that heyday ages ago.
“First Blood” rages out of the gate, driven by Allen’s furious thrashing rhythms, built on an epic martial intro that quickly kicks into a ripping main riff and never lets off the gas for six minutes, even as it shifts into some chunkier, palm-muted riffs. Travis’ goblin-snarl guttural hasn’t aged a day, still sliding easily between a gravelly growl and higher-pitched shrieking screams (with an occasional lower bellow), eschewing melody in favor of ferocity. “Scorched And Burnt” mines more of a midtempo swing, groovy without falling prey to the traps of groove thrash boneheadedness, more deliberate in its destruction, and yet no less destructive in the doing. The twisting riffage and full-tilt speed of “Anarchy” marries both Sadus’ technical bent and the exhilarating savagery that makes their earlier efforts so vital, even decades later. The instrumental “New Beginnings” and the closing title track slow things down into moodier moments, though not without losing Shadow’s spark, and by the time The Shadow Inside wraps up, it’s been 47 minutes of high-quality Sadus thrash-work, very much here, very much alive. Determined. Obstinate. Doing what they do because they like to do it, and because we like to hear it.
All deserved praise delivered, it’s important to note that, while Sadus c. 2023 stands strong on its own two legs, the absence of Steve DiGiorgio is still felt greatly. His Cliff Burton-meets-Jaco Pastorious fretless lead-bass work was one of the band’s defining characteristics, as important to the Sadus sound as Travis’ snarl, the deceptively tech-y riffs, and Allen’s pedal-to-the-floor drumming. And without it, a side of Sadus is simply missing. To Travis’ credit, he doesn’t try to replicate DiGiorgio’s playing – aside from some moments in “New Beginnings,” the bass on The Shadow Inside is relegated to a more traditional thrash metal role, which, while unusual for a Sadus record, does allow Travis’ guitar work to shine a little more.
It seems a bit unfair to directly compare Shadow with earlier Sadus records, but also it’s inevitable. It’s highly likely that nothing the band ever does will reach the rabid heights of Illusions / Chemical Exposure again – time and place and all, I guess – and if you’re new to Sadus, it’s important that you spend time on that one, as it’s a stone-cold classic, as is the more polished A Vision Of Misery. The Shadow Inside doesn’t knock those two off their pedestals, but it’s easily better than Elements and Blood, so their persistence / obstinance / doing what they do is worth the effort, no doubt. Given the nearly two-decade layoff between Blood and now, and conveniently ignoring the declaration that Sadus was dead and buried, The Shadow Inside is a far far better Sadus album than I would have expected (thought I was not expecting one at all), and an album that handily out-thrashes recent efforts by some far more successful bands from their same heyday.
And that, kids, is the Value Of Persistence. Or Obstinance, or Doing What Do You Do Because You Love it. And, more than all of that, it’s the Value Of Thrash, still killing after all these years.