Out for Blood

It's a bit shocking that it took 9 long years for "Out For Blood" to release. Well, despite the huge changes that Sadus has made to their style on "Elements Of Anger", Darren Travis' band met with relatively mild criticism, so it could calmly go into ever lighter climates and release this type of music every 3-4 years - especially for those who liked the new style (which, unfortunately, I didn't like so much). Meanwhile, the band had a slightly different vision, so we had to wait a lot more for "Out..." and it was decided that its content would differ quite significantly from the sounds from "Elements...".

Interestingly, "Out For Blood" starts with a powerful hit (i.e. "In The Name Of..."), referring to the times of "A Vision Of Misery" and meaningfully intertwining between thrashing speeds and smaller slowdowns. Unfortunately, the spell has broken with the coming of "No More", which begins to happen total atrocities. You get the impression that the band did not deduce virtually any conclusions from "Elements Of Anger". Because instead of focusing on a specific style (whether to soften or tighten the music as a whole), the trio simply stuffed everything here as it goes, regardless of the end result. Well, this one is really weak. Okay, apart from the aforementioned "In The Name Of...", there are also songs that resembles the later Testament like "Freedom" (by the way, a nice tribute to Chuck Schuldiner), title track (decent power) and "Crazy" (in which Chuck Billy himself appeared, adding a bit of an Indian atmosphere), but that's all of the biggest highlights (which is a joke with the 55-minute material). In the rest of the tracks the band is playing smuggling groove metal patents (and in "Down" even metalcore ones!) or experimenting with electronics, but unfortunately it doesn't make any sense. Even - as always - the excellent bass work of Steve DiGiorgio does not improve the quality of these songs.

After nine years of silence from the times of "Elements Of Anger", the Americans from Sadus hit with the album very much below their capabilities. On "Out For Blood" they decided to throw everything that came to their mind, from thrash metal to groovy "jumpiness" and synthesizer additions. It came out quite grotesquely, as if they had not made any selection here.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

That’s why Darren Travis and his small ensemble had to give it one more shot. Cause the album reviewed here is by no means a full-on nod to the classic metal resurrection campaign, which was in full swing at the time, thus frustrating a large portion of the fanbase who were expecting exactly that. Not only have the guys been a very irregular presence on the field, but they also have the temerity to dissipate the monolithic old school wall that’s been built meticulously by the other, both old and new, practitioners… unforgivable, even for a legendary act like Sadus.

Travis is an interesting figure; he simply refuses to work with other musicians but Jon Allen and Steve DiGiorgio, not caring much that half his life has passed in waiting for the latter to free himself from his engagements with half the metal constellation, and pull the fat strings on the next episodic Sadus release. Travis by all means has other obligations to society except running his musical passion, I guess, but once upon a time things looked so promising, and it seemed as though the Sadus team would be able to leave the underground… easily.

Well, that never happened, but the guys’ cult status has long since been ensured, and the album reviewed here, depending on the taste of course, adds up to it. Cause Travis and Co. by default can’t possibly produce anything that truly sucks, and fans of the preceding “angry” instalment should have few problems absorbing this opus here.

I have to admit that I wasn’t extremely delighted the first time I listened to the album as I didn’t know how to place it, not within the relevant retro metal context at the time anyway… but it’s a Sadus release, for crying out loud, you can’t throw it on the shelf after just one or two listens; you have to stay with it until the customary flashes of genius become more audible... cause they’re definitely there, and “In the Name of…” is already the stylish opener one could expect from the guys, DiGiorgio’s vociferous bass walking hand in hand with Travis’ frenetic riffs the latter’s hysterical, plain screechy at times, vocal contribution a debatable asset all over; the band thrash hard with renovated vigour although the modern vibe is quite tangible, and it’s clear that this isn’t going to be a retro metal showdown… and it’s not with “No More” inserting electronic samples into its monolithic groovy façade, also receiving big support in this department from “Smackdown”, a sleazy Helmet/Biohazard-esque digression which can be a fair pullback even for the most fanatic Sadus followers...

the title-track has to do something to save the situation, and it doesn’t disappoint with its dynamic technical riff-patterns which even bring to mind the band’s feats from the early-90’s, an impetuous shredder with numerous tempo changes and a heavy pounding epitaph. “Lose it All” doesn’t exactly lose it all, but the creepy industrial undercurrents and the resumed interest in the groove don’t exactly make it the fans’ favourite despite the few more interesting melodic embellishments. “Sick” is a short brisk thrasher, a wild exhausting ride that brings the classic sound back in the game, but there won’t be two in a row here as “Down” is the next in line jumpy groover, more dramatic than the rest, but forgettable and patchy nonetheless. “Freedom”, which is dedicated to Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P.), is expectedly a more serious progressive opus, and the intriguing melodic Oriental hooks and the more inspired fretwork, not to mention the exemplary bass pirouettes, make it listenable if not an instant classic. “Freak” is an excellent brief technical headbanging showdown, a somewhat chaotic, but attractive piece before “Cursed” takes over, the other complex behemoth, a diverse composition with several delights for the fans like the brilliant overlapping riff salads in the middle, the swirling fast-paced crescendos applied regularly, and the alluring melodic passages. The undisputable highlight on this uneven, flippant opus which is finalized by “Crazy”, a passable blend of thick grooves and a few dramatic technical accumulations, not the most distinct finale in the band’s career, but kind of deserving having in mind the dominant modern tone here.

Yeah, another tribute to the angry 90’s has just finished… in the midst of the classic metal heat renaissance. Not exactly an act of heresy, but hardly the most reverential one again having in mind the signatures underneath it. Nostalgia towards the band’s roots mixed with their still prevalent passion for the 90’s music vogues… again, taken merely as a follow-up to its predecessor, this effort should please on all counts as it’s a logical continuation of those angry, groovy undercurrents. However, one can’t help but be perennially mystified as to why the band have remained stuck in the past decade, limiting their creativity and imagination within these not very demanding, groovy confines. Like a single, isolated nod to those trends wasn’t enough…

Well, one can’t blame musical visionaries for their musical predilections, not these three ones in particular anyway, and this last so far instalment in the band’s discography is a decent, albeit flawed and uneven, ode to all things modern and classic (more modern than classic) in our favourite thrash that can even be considered an antidote of some sorts to the experienced at present influx of classic metal advocates. Defiance is always a potential choice when a trend gets formed so why not Sadus choose it and stick out of the crowd? Hoping at the same time that whatever anger there was still left had finally been exorcised from the band’s camp…

Travis is back on the road, and reportedly his two loyal comrades will join him for the ride once again... as soon as they're done with whatever else they're working on at the moment, though; there should be no rush when it comes to the fleshing out of another chapter from the Sadus saga. Angry or peaceful, classic or modern, it’s going to be a thrilling ride all the same so make sure you book a seat on the front row from now.

The lore of olden days when 80s Bay Area thrash was merging with the newly forming death metal sound saw a very promising Sadus, teaming with monster riffs, soaring bass lines to rival Joey Demaio and Cliff Burton, and a formidable vocal presence resting somewhere between Chuck Schuldiner and Jeff Becerra. To put it plainly, this was a band that would not have been unwelcome amongst those who lapped up early Exodus, "Scream Bloody Gore" era Death, or the most auspicious 80s output of Slayer. As such, the promise of modernity can only promise a step down in quality, as was the case with both Slayer and Exodus (Death being spared this by the untimely passing of its front man and mastermind), but where this band ended up circa 2006 is on par with the nosedive that occurred with Slayer about 10 years prior, rather than the gradual decline occurring after Exodus' reformation.

While there are probably a good number of albums out there far worse than this (Machine Head's middle era comes to mind), damned if Sadus doesn't try to sink to the same level as them at nearly every turn. Moments resembling that classic, riff happy thrash sound that was employed in the past are few and far between, though owners of the special edition of this album will find some respectable work from their less prolific period in the mid to late 90s that showcases a band still somewhat in touch with their past. However, the bulk of the contents on here are an absolute mishmash, throwing a number of traditional heavy metal, groove, and modern elements in a jumbled mess not all that dissimilar from a failed experiment in an extreme progressive metal factory.

The best moments of this thing tend to come in when elements of DiGiorgio's past work with Iced Earth shines through a tad amid the musical sea of incoherence. Most of this occurs on the opening song "In The Name Of...", which listens like a bass-happy outtake from "Horror Show" with lackluster harsh vocals. Occasionally a high-octane thrash section in the mold of mid-80s Slayer works its way in to pull it away from the galloping NWOBHM styled orthodoxy of Jon Shaffer, but the shining moments of this album get a bit bogged down in ridiculousness as Darren Travis seems determined to sound as ridiculous as possible and even throws in some quirky studio effects for good measure. A few similar ideas manage to filter in and out of "Out For Blood", which also manages to sound somewhat like a thrasher, though in a mold more along the lines of recent Annihilator work, thus getting bogged down in too many conflicting ideas, not the least of which is an annoying principle riff that sounds dangerously close to a Machine Head interlude.

For the most part, the rest of this album is an absolute grab bag of semi-interesting ideas meshed with nonsensical musical gibberish. It can be granted that a lot of thought went into these songs and a lot of skill was needed to play them, but organization and seriousness were clearly not terribly high on the priority list as this was put together. The lyrics are absolutely asinine, conjuring up memories of early 90s Pantera meshed with something almost campy enough to pass for WWE theme music. Oddly placed synthesizer lines are thrown in with little accounting for sense, giving the thing a bizarre, Sci-Fi B movie feel. Some get more ridiculous than others, but the winner in the random, goofy department is clearly "No More", which teams with enough keyboard driven weirdness to make "Turbo" era Judas Priest blush and a really boring groove riff set that literally could have found itself on "The Blackening" had it been written a year later.

Most bad albums induce a sense of moderate to extreme revulsion, but "Out For Blood" may be the first album to make an unsuspecting buyer laugh his ass off, before he remembers he spent money on this thing of course. This is right out of the same failed formula that Jeff Waters went to time and time again in the 90s (before having Randy Rampage and later Jon Comeau inject some sanity back into the equation, naturally being followed by the same sort of trite resurfacing), literally to the point of questions of stylistic cloning at times. This thing may be technically proficient, and it even has some bass work that would put most prog. band 4 or 5 stringers to shame, but there isn't much on here that resembles an actual song that can be held onto, and as an album it barely manages to rival a lot of the sappy metalcore garbage that was taking over the airwaves. For those who love Sadus, just pretend this thing doesn't exist and hope that Steve DiGiorgio sticks to his work with Charred Walls Of The Damned for the foreseeable future.

I know that a lot of people do believe that this album is a piece of shit, so I’m going to explain briefly why I gave this score to the album. First of all, you have to consider that this is the first Sadus record since 1997, so it is more than obvious that their style is totally different than the one they used to have in olden times, I think that it is different but not worse than the old Sadus style.

“Out for blood” was one of the most waited metal releases in 2006 and many people were pretty upset with the album because they thought it would be like the old style, which is totally impossible just because anything in the world changes and a band such as Sadus or Metallica is not the exception. The album is very enjoyable, once you start listening to it you will realize that it’s an album with an incredible production, amazing riffs, cool bass solos and very good lyrics such as the ones dedicated to Chuck Schuldiner in the song named “Freedom”. There are also some other songs that have amazing lyrics such as “Down”, which describes a typical murder with a revolver, “Sick”, that’s talks about a guy with a mental disease, there are other ones which are not so easy to interpretate like in the name of….

In addition, this album is totally aggressive and it may gives you a sensation of anger and satisfaction at the same time ‘cause it is a weird style of classical thrash metal mixed with death, technical metal and electronic parts, which are not my favorites, creating a fantastic combination of music styles.

On the other hand, I have to agree with people who hate the album, that the synthesizer parts are somehow annoying when you listen to the album for the first time; In fact, they are not good at all. In my point of view, they are not cohesive with the Sadus Style, for example, the introduction of the song called “No More” is just fucking queer and you may think that you’ll hear Techno music after that introduction. In better words, it’s irritating.

I really like this album, even though it has those horrible synthesizer parts, I think Out for Blood is something unique in modern metal music because it combines thrash metal, death metal, technical and electronic part in an awesome way, that’s why it deserves a 97.

Recommended tracks: In the Name of.., Out for Blood, Down, Freak and of course Freedom, which is the best one in my opinion.

This the greatest thing ever recorded. Seriously, this comes across with the same level as humour that Anal Cunt had on Picnic of Love. It's hilarious opposite of what they do usually, instead of killing posers, they opted to make poser styled mallcore. It's a pisser. Well, I hope it's a pisser, because otherwise Sadus has gone mighty downhill. Actually, it's a bigger fall than a hill, this is like downcliff.

Basically, this is Sadus doing a collection of tracks for a wrestling theme song collaboration, or at least that's what it sounds like. Every song is an introduction to a new wrestler. "Smackdown" is the bad guy, "No More" is the good guy, rebelling against the bad guy, "Down" is the small lightweight guy with courage and guts, and "Freak" is a guy in a silly costume. Seriously, they fit perfectly to the moulds.

All jokes aside, this is a terrible, terrible release. With nothing worthwhile on offer. I mean nothing, not a cool thrashy riff, no stand out vocal lines, no insane drumming, hell it’s not even catchy. Apart from having one of my favourite bassists of all time in the band, there are no positives whatsoever. I don't like to use the words poser and Nu Metal when talking about metal bands, because lets face it, it's not generally applied correctly, and tends to be another word for "I don't like it, it's not very heavy". But to be honest, the most fitting description I can think of for this album is, "The worst piece of poser nu Metal ever recorded". No joke, Slipknot have less poser in them than this album does.

It's not just that it's slow, or that it's not thrash, or even true metal, it's not that it grooves, it's not that the amazing skill the band had is not present here, Sadus truly kill themselves because they sound serious about this. All the lyrics, as terrible as they are, seem real, not like a big joke as I want to believe so much. This is just a disgrace. Every time I hear this I have to struggle to remember that this band put out "Illusions".

I know that I've been focussed on what's changed since the good old days, and not really on what's going on here. And that's because not a lot is. Darren sounds ok, not great, but he's hardly putting in a terrible performance, of course the lyrics are a-fucking-bysmal, I don't need to give examples, just read down into some other reviews. Or just look at the song lyrics. Every single one is as bad as the last. The riffs are non-existent. Seriously, many of the riffs here are worse than most Nu Metal acts. No joke, simple chugs at the same speed as the vocals. It's terrible. There's the odd thrashier riff here and there, but really, they basically seem like faster groove riffs. I like my groove metal. But these are musical cancer.

The drumming is so boring it makes me want to cry when I remember the fun times that Jon Allen had given us in years gone by. Of course, DiGiorgio is passable, and I have nothing bad to say about him. But he's just on, really quite insignificant element of an otherwise painful entity.

I know it has the word Sadus on the cover, and from past experience it's enough to warrant a listen, but trust me, things have gone wrong. So very, very wrong. Ignore it, and hope for the band to announce Out For Blood was a joke in the near future, otherwise, another great band has gone to hell.

With this release Sadus basically decided that, well, seeing as how a lot of people today are playing shitty, downtuned, untalented shit they should do the same. Quite a strange way of thinking considering the title of their first demo really. Like the reviewer before me, I was taken aback by this record, as although I've only heard a few Sadus songs from their earlier records I can say this sounds nothing like they used to.

What it does sound like is a fucking Korn album. Shitty synthesizers, repetitive, simple riffs that a monkey could've farted out of his arse, and stupid lyrics that are supposed to sound 'threatening' to make up for the poor attempts at making anything musical. There is one alright track on here however, and that track is the first song, 'In the Name of...'. Starting off with a bass intro, it evolves into some fast riffing until about two minutes in, when one of the worst attempts at a thrash break I have ever heard appears, which consists of some shitty groove riff with the vocalist shouting 'in the name of' over and over again. It picks up again to where it was before with a a pretty good riff before leading out with some more groove. So yeah, it's not that good a song, but if the whole album were like this it would at least be something resembling thrash. After the song is finished, the quality of release falls of a cliff, with the rest of it consisting of fucking mallcore. From the laughter inducing stupidity of 'Down' to the pathetic Korn-like 'riffing' in 'No More', this fails to do anything right. And then there is 'Smackdown'. This must be the shittiest song released in the last five years or so that has at least some relation to metal, and when you consider it was written by a what used to be a fucking technical thrash band, it makes it even worse. How the fuck was this piece of shit released? It starts off with a pointless, one minute intro which bores the listener, before descending into 'riffing' that is worse than Korn's. Enough have been said about the lyrics, so I won't delve further down into that, but they truly are as bad as people say they are.

Then I could go into the terrible attempts at soloing, the ear grating production and the unaggressive vocal performance, but really there's no point. Unless they manage to focus on the one song they did right on here ('In the Name of...') for inspiration for further albums, this band are beyond hope now. If you like mallcore, this album is very recommended, as it contains all the element which make up an album of one. If you are thinking of picking this up expecting it will be full of some great technical thrash save your money for something worthwhile. A terrible album whichever way you look at it, and probably one of the worst albums of 2006.

As I said, for fans of Soilwork/The Haunted (mainly their riffing and production), this is for you. Also, fans of Korn and Hatebreed are advised to check this one out! For fans of real thrash metal, stay clear. This is another album that has received several good and even great reviews by a semi-large number of people. In reality, there is more bad material than good, the bad is at times unimaginably horrid, and even the good, isn't that good.

Musically, there are several issues. The album opens up an on "ok" note. The first track (In The Name Of...) starts off with a pointless intro, and then picks up with the riffs and bass. These riffs are kind of like older Sadus, yet less heavy. There are a couple interesting riffs on this song, but as a thrash metal song it is really weak, There's no heaviness to the riffs at all, really. The bass lines are technically interesting, but at times sound "funky" in an annoying and anti-thrash type way. Overall its a pretty worthless song, and the occasional synthesizer on this song makes it worse.

Those comments above don't seem to justify a rating like 33, as the conclusion was basically "weak" and "mediocore". Next we have the reason the album's score is so low (not so much the song itself, but the tone it sets for the rest of the album). "No More" has a synthy intro that again is pretty fucking lame. I am wondering if I am going to hear the same weak riffs as before, but no! Instead with have our good friend, mr. CHUG riff. Yeah, this is awful. The song is slow/mid-paced, with absolutely no original riff-writing to be found. The riffs basically sound an even less metal version a Mnemic, combined with a chorus structure similar to Hatebreed...and what the fuck are those noises all-throughout the track!? Its almost insulting that they may have thought these noises could "improve the song" Unfortunately, this isn't the worst track on the album.

That worst track, is the #3 potential mallcore anthem "smackdown". What the fuck is this riffing? Again, fans of Soilwork may find this "h3avy as fvck" or "br00tal", but any real thrash metal listener, or metal fan in general will recognize this total shit. Imagine Pantera riffing, with less variation, and an added degree of numetal. Pantera were never truly thrash to begin with, and this is further from it than them. Why don't I point out the intelligence level of this track as well? With lyrics like "Show some respect, better come correct, can’t eject....What did you expect, twist your neck " can this song possibly be good? Of course not. The "intelligence" continues with "When you feel the meltdown, Then you start to break down " and hey, speaking of breakdowns......well, forget it. In one last attempt to convince people how "tough" they are, the lines "Talking trash, you wanna clash " and "I’ll kick you mother fuckin’ ass" appear. Holy hell, if that isn't childish and mallcore-style writing, then Hatebreed should be added to this site under the "thrash/crossover" genre.

Out for blood...sucks, begining with more weak "riffs" and bass lines that really are only so easy to hear because of the said weakness of those "riffs". All I am going to say after that, is the riff at about 49 seconds reminds me of Korn. Speaking of Korn-styled riffs, how about 43 seconds into the 8th "freedom" Isn't that just fantastic?

As bad as those riffs/songs were, Smackdown was clearly the worst. Yes, thats right, I said "was". I had Ironically (on accident at the time) skipped #7 "down".
Wow, I wished I hadn't noticed my "error". The song immediately starts out with "can't bring me DOWN!" and as he says "DOWN" the complete nu-metal-riffing enters. This isn't even the weakness of bands such and Machine Head or lamb of god, its WORSE. This is probably one of the worst songs I have ever heard. The riffs literally sound as if they were stolen straight from Korn, with probably even less variation. There is a "solo" which may impress those fans of Korn, who are not used to guitar solos, but its completely worthless.

The vocals on this album are weak, lame, and at times what I would call "bitchy". These vocals are "enhanced" by synthesizers, which add another negative element to the album. Certain songs on the album are slightly faster, but still either keep a very weak and backgrounded guitar tone, or a muddy, nu-metal styled one. The lyrics are mostly all-out nu-core "I |-|4T3 U" styled ones, and while they can't rival the horridness of Annihilator's newest album, they're still pretty fucking bad. Speaking of Annihilator's newest "album", the riffs on here are even worse. This album gets 5 points for an extremely limited set of half-interesting riffs, 5 points for a small degree of technicality shown in the lead work, 5 points for the lame, yet also semi-technical bass-lines, and 5 points for the vocalist not being Jonathon Davis. There you have it, a 20. This is another damned anti-thrash comeback that is being praised by morons. Not only is this not thrash, but a couple of the songs would stand out as weak-points of a hatebreed album.
Congratulations Sadus! You suck!

Classic thrash, a genre that was started back in the eighties by big names like Slayer, Metallica and Anthrax. Sadus has always been a bit of an underdog though, they got big through tapetrading back in the day and this exposure eventually got them signed to Roadrunner. They released a few killer albums which are unfortunately totally out of print nowadays. Their most recent real album was way back in 1997. After that they disappeared.

Now, Sadus is back with 'Out For Blood'. The old school thrash sound remains intact and a few new experimental elements have been added to the music in the form of samples mixed with the guitarplay giving some of the songs a little extra edge. This also makes the record sound a bit more modern as a whole. Sadus has legendary bassist Steve Digiorgio in it's ranks, Digiorgio has played with very big bands like Death and Iced Earth in the past and is also the bassist for Testament. His influence on the music is a big one and that can be heard throughout the album. 'Out For Blood' opens with a track that has some razorsharp riffing, instantly making you know that Sadus is coming back strong. The vocals are still the same as they've always been, a bit raspy at times but they blend in nicely with the music. The speed of the album overall, speed you would expect from thrash, is a bit lacking however, it's not that fast this time around.

There are a few weaker tracks like 'Smackdown' which I didn't like a lot, but other very good songs, like 'Cursed', complete with an Arabian tinged intro sound make up for that. The best song on the album comes last though, a brutal song with a catchy chorus that includes guest vocals from Testament's Chuck Billy. Overall this is a good comeback album for Sadus, it's not a masterpiece, but it's very enjoyable. 'Out For Blood' is a decent old school thrash release for 2006.

Originally written for http://www.gothtronic.com

The twenty first century is the time for comebacks. Especially for thrash bands – Exodus reunited and released Tempo of The Damned, Atheist reformed for a couple of festivals, so did Heathen in 2001 and Laaz Rockit in 2005. Sadus also made a comeback in 2004, performed with Cannibal Corpse and Hirax on a couple of festivals. Then the band returned to the studio after nine years and recorded the subject of this review – Out For Blood.

The album starts with "In The Name Of…", a 6:10 minute-reminder to anyone who dared to miss – Sadus are back! Some pretty nice riffs right from the very first second, along with the fantastic bass lines of Steve DiGiorgio. You can clearly hear on this song that the vocals changed on this record, to the more rough side, more deathish than in Sadus' previous albums.

The next tune, "No More" starts with some marching beats and some electronic samples that soon disappear into a start-stop riff. Although the start-stop riff style belongs to the nu-metal realm, its pretty neat and combines well with the catchy chorus. There are some technical thrash riffs as well, which makes this song a perfect example of the modern-classic combination Sadus tries to accomplish in this album.
The third song, "Smackdown", is probably the only disappointing song in this album. Fits the title though, it sounds like the nu-metal songs you tend to hear in professional wresting arenas rather than the ball-crushing bone-breaking skull-smacking thrash material you expect to hear from a band like Sadus.

On we move to the fourth song, and the title song, "Out For Blood". This is defiantly one of this album's best moments – classic thrash piece which shows that although Sadus took a 9 years break, they can still pull off some riffs and catchy lyrics. Another song that demonstrates the more classic approach is "Sick", with some fast technical riffs, great drumming and outstanding bass work by DiGiorgio.

Another mentionable song in this album is "Freedom". Features some decent riffs and screams right on the start, followed by a couple of solos around the third minute. After the fourth minutes kicks in the song takes a midpace turn for a short period, and then right back to the faster technical riffs from the beginning.

"Cursed", the longest track in the record, starts with soothing bird and sea waves samples, accompanied by an acoustic guitar intro and more electronic samples. The distortion kicks in close to the end of the second minute with a great midpaced riff and awesome bass lines. The track speeds up until its peak when Darren starts singing. The song ends the way it started, with electronic and sea samples.

The last track of this album, "Crazy", features a guest appearance of Chuck Billy from Testament, who sings along with Darren Travis through the whole piece. Chuck really gives this song an interesting touch, which fits exactly the great work done in this song, instrument-wise.

The album ends with the repeated line "Am I crazy?" and its well placed – You must be crazy if you call yourself a thrash fan and didn’t rush to buy this album the second it got out. Its not the best thrash piece ever, but it is certainly a good album and a great comeback album that hopefully will help revive the thrash scene from the ashes!

Sadus - Out For Blood (2006)

What a shame... This album is a huge letdown and the absolute worst "comeback" thrash album in recent history. Scratch that, this is far from thrash, this is nu metal.

25/100? What's so bad about it? : For starters Darren Travis (vocals/guitars) is the weakest link. Where are the riffs? Guitars here are low in the mix and contribute little more than half-assed half-thrash nu-metal riffs this side of Testament. Riffs hadn't exactly been the focus of Sadus' attack for some time I suppose. But, the sheer lack of guitarwork/riffs is still a bit jarring. Underwhelming and uninteresting. Vocals are a joke, of course 'Smackdown' is just plain embarrassing and the rest of this album follows suit. Monotonous "Get in da pit" lyrics, delivered unconvincingly. The Bass... Surely DiGiorgio will step up to the plate. Nope, he doesn't take charge as you might expect. The drumming isn't worth mention, standard stuff here. Some sampled electronics are thrown into a few songs but they are poorly done, and irritatingly repetitive. The mix is just plain weak, and the performances are weak, nothing stands out. It's as if each member of Sadus has resigned themselves to the background. No one wants to step up to the plate. So what do we get... Half-thrash nu metal ala Testament or a much weaker Torturer (Chile).

To recap: 'Out For Blood' is a truly embarrassing stain on a previously respectable string of releases coming from Sadus. This is far from an evolution of sound, or a foray into experimentalism. It's a 'safe', predictable and lifeless nu-thrash album. Avoid at all costs.

Sadus have always been a "technical" thrash band in my opinion...Even in the early days. Not lame, over-technical like Watchtower, but just more complex and a bit harder to initially identify with than bands like Metallica or Slayer.

Though they have slowed a bit with each successive release since the killer, fast as lightning "Chemical Exposure", they still bring good riffs, great vocals and highly listenable songs to each album. Out for Blood is no exception.

Darren Travis has a charismatic vocal style and is always fun to listen to. He's still belting out pissed off yells, and drawn out, throaty screams in this album, just like each album prior. Still, he's lost a bit of overall quality in his voice, most likely due to age.

His guitar playing is good, but not exceptional, on this release, while Steve Digiorgio's bass is excellent as always. Drums are proficient, nothing wrong there.

The songs are good to listen to but lack the musical, and especially lyrical depth of 1998's Elements of Anger...Especially the song Smackdown, which I hope wasn't intended to be played on pro wrestling, but could be. Everytime I hear this one I envision the band deciding that it might be in their best interest to come out with at least one nu-metalesque song for the new album. Many bands have been known to do this over the years. Just throw in one "radio" song in hopes to make a little bit of money...Anyways, this song's a bit corny and stupid in my book.

As for the rest of the album...I mean yeah, a bit of numetal sound here...But more like the mid-paced technical stuff from Elements than nu.

A good album, worth listening to. Nothing spectacular, still way better than numerous other recent releases by metal bands who originated in the 80's (Destruction, Overkill, Nuclear Assault).

I like the modern, clear, smooth production and the occasional synthesized sound effect thrown in for an added flare. If you liked Elements of Anger than you'll like this one...probably not more however.