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Sadist: Sadist
19/12/11 || BamaHammer
Uh-oh. It’s a band from Genoa, Italy, who refers to themselves as “progressive.”
But, alas. Never fear, this is not a mozzarella-infused power metal rabble. This is actually some pretty fancy technical death metal with more than a few progressive influences peppered into it for effect, even if the vocals suck like an Oreck. Now, while this band can definitely be called progressive death metal, it doesn’t mean that they just write really long songs by repeating the same passages over and over, throw in some clean vocals here and there, and dabble with acoustic guitars, à la Opeth. These Italians legitimately push the envelope of the classic paradigm of what death metal is believed by all of us to be.
By the same token, Sadist do have tendencies to come off as very pretentious at times during this record. They use a sitar. That sentence alone should tell you all you need to know. As if that wasn’t enough, they also use a Greek bouzouki, which sounds like something fired at the Persians during the Battle of Plataea.
Sadist is a band that is obviously heavily inspired by bands like Atheist and Cynic, using odd time signatures, unorthodox song structures, and a fretless bass to exhibit their own musical aptitude. The bass itself is truly a spectacle to behold on essentially any track on “Sadist.” Andy Marchini is undoubtedly one of the most technically proficient bassists on the planet today. His chops are world class, his tone is classy, and his phrasin’ is amazin’. He’s even left-handed. What he does throughout “Sadist” is provide a really cool, thick foundation underneath a cavalcade of musical wankery. It’s easy to get caught up in how cool his licks are on this album. With all the other activity happening around it in every song, the bass is just so interesting that it’s tempting to ignore everything else from time to time.
While not quite in the same strata of impressiveness as Marchini, the guitar work of Tommy Talamanca (who guested on Obscura’s “Omnivium”) is top-notch. His riffing is tight and precise, and the solos are a display of some pretty virtuosic skill, all the while remaining classy and tasteful. The tone is razor-sharp and slices through the mix with relative ease, and it fits the music and the general feel of the record perfectly.
Alessio Spallarossa’s drumming is as just sufficient as any technical death metal drummer out there as far as time changes and song structures are concerned, but he’s not a Sean Reinert or anything by any means. I will say that he has a good spectrum of talents on display here, ranging from tasty metal chops to tribal rhythms, and he has an obvious chemistry with Marchini upon which the music can be built.
And now for the bad stuff. Trevor Nadir is the name of Sadist’s vocalist. Trevor Nadir almost, almost, ruins this whole band for me.
Nadir’s shrill scream is not only very annoying, but extremely out of place on this record. He attempts a lower growl from time to time, but after you hear it, you understand why he doesn’t try it more often. He’s just not that good. On top of having a brutally irritating vocal style, his enunciation is also pretty frustrating. I understand the whole Italian-guy-singing-in-English-thing, and I could give a shit about lyrics, but he’s completely indecipherable. Well, almost. I can hear a clear “ONE UH-TOUSAND MEMOR-AYS!” in the post-intro opener. The rest of the time, he sounds like he’s screaming with a mouth full of shit.
It’s honestly at the point where you could say that that Sadist would be a better instrumental band than what they currently are. Once you get past the merciless ear-fucking by the vocals, you’re actually treated to some killer technical death metal with melody, groove, and even catchiness. You probably won’t enjoy it on the first listen, but give it a few spins, and it will start growing on you like herpes.
- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Season Of Mist
- Website: http://sadist.it
- Band
- Trevor Nadir: vocals
- Tommy Talamanca: guitars, mandolin, Greek bouzouki, sitar, keyboards, piano
- Andy Marchini: bass
- Alessio Spallarossa: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Jagriti
- 02. One Thousand Memories
- 03. I Feel You Climb
- 04. Embracing the Form of Life
- 05. Tearing Away
- 06. Kopto
- 07. Excited and Desirous
- 08. Different Melodies
- 09. Invisible
- 10. Hope to Be Deaf
- 11. Sadist
