The Magus

The world is about to end; no signs of redemption are in sight and mankind is doomed; at least, that comes to mind every time I spin Sadistik Exekution’s The Magus. Call it war metal, death metal, or black metal, but one thing remains clear; this wasn’t made for the faint hearted.

I’ll admit: in general, this style isn’t my thing and I can’t help but think that plenty of these albums that fall into this category of atmospheric brutality lack substance; meaning that they’re basically written by bands that fail to write songs that actually stick in your head. Here’s where The Magus is one of the exceptions to the rule for me. You don’t end up with a ride of non-stop skull-bashing of so-so riffs and drums that overshadow everything else. With riffs ranging from controlled thrashing to lightning-fast tremolo bits, raspy vocals that express deep hatred for mankind and a well-functional drum machine (not literally, but the guy surely sounds like one), The Magus has to be one of the most interesting extreme metal albums from the early 90’s that I can think. Not to mention that this was supposedly recorded in 1988 and written 1986.

The thing is; in an 80’s extreme metal context, The Magus makes even less sense than it does in an early 90’s context. While it never takes long before a pure thrash metal riff finds its way between the pissed-off vocals and captivating drums, the speedier parts are unlike anything I could think of from that time. Sure, bands like Sepultura and Vulcano were causing havoc at the other side of the world, yet Sadistik Exekution never makes me think of what those crazy Brazilians were doing at that time. There’s something personal about this album and even the most recognizable track that I could think of doesn’t make much sense, given the time this was apparently written; is the title track an early example of Morbid Angel-inspired death metal or had the band not even heard of Morbid Angel at this point? Hard to tell, really.

Trying to figure out who inspired who isn’t going to help anyone and certainly in this case, it’s probably best to enjoy Sadistik Exekution for what they brought to the table; death metal with a determined-to-destroy attitude. One moment it’s thrashing time, then the band speeds up and all hell breaks loose and generally, the songs consists of a predictable formula, yet two tracks clearly differentiate from the norm. As I had just mentioned, the title track makes me think of early Morbid Angel; it’s a relentless offering of atmospheric brutality; with verses rushing through the boundaries of hell, but I also love how you end up with some hummable and catchy riffs in between. ‘’Agonizing the Dead’’ slows down to a haunting pace from time to time and proves that Sadistik Exekution weren’t just speed-obsessed freaks to begin with. The track doesn’t try to tear your soul apart with its vigor riffs from the start, but rather builds momentum through a variety of sub-sections. You've got some spooky synth-driven moments, cleverly thrash-inspired parts and of course, some maniacal outbursts; resulting into a marvelous epic with an apocalyptic feel to it.

The Magus clearly delivers an onslaught of twisted metal - absolutely, but it has its flaws. ‘Cautness Darling Blood’ gets a bit too messy for its own good and becomes much more fun once it operates in a thrash-styled manner, whereas the fast and furious verses go one ear in and one ear out but with. You’ll also notice that the production values vary from track to track and this one of the few examples where the guitars sound thinner than usual. It’s rather unfortunate, because the better-produced tracks feature a far more resonant and sharper tone. I also could have done without a four minute-long outro; it’s longer than some of the actual songs on the album to begin with… and I probably don’t need to explain why that doesn’t work, do I?

Again, most of its material sounds pretty wicked and that’s what mostly important. Regardless of my limited interest in this style to begin with, The Magus remains one of the few outstanding albums in this vein. Most of the songs keep me getting back for more... if that’s not something plenty of extreme metal bands could learn from, then I don’t know what is.

This review was originally written for antichristmagazine.com

I see red and I see flames.

I see violently razor sharp edges that can slice open skin, organs, bone and muscle.

I see a hellish deformed beast of a figure letting out loud painful growls of agony and blasphemy.

I see a place lower than the deepest most claustrophobic pit of hellfire and brimstone.

I see the raw aggression and intensity of the force of a nuclear bomb multiplied by a hundred.

You can say I'm interpreting the album cover of THE MAGUS, when i am actually visualizing what I hear when I listen to this mass murderer of a debut album. More specifically, I am interpreting the Magus' ambience and atmosphere (red and flames), electric guitar (razor sharp edges), vocals (hellish beast), bass guitar (place lower than pit of hell), and drums (force of nuke x100).

Sadistik Exekution is not a black metal band. Atleast since 1994 with their second LP release appropriately (and accidentally) titled "We Are Death Fukk You!", It has been obviously known that Sadistik Exekution are first and foremost a death metal band.

The guitar riffs are more like insanely fast, down tuned, ever varying organized chaos, rather than the tremolo power chord, possessed chainsaw riffage more used by black metal bands, such as the great Bathory, black metal era Sodom, Sarcofago and other blasphemous acts such as Vulcano, Holocausto, Abhorer, Impiety, fellow Australians Destroyer 666 and Bestial Warlust, and then obviously Bestial Mockery, hence why the chainsaw metaphor. The bass guitar is not only audible, but also some of the best, gurgliest, most intense bass work I have ever heard. The drums may be fast and intense just like in black metal, however theres always various tempo changes and an overall heavier production sound, which is what you hear in death metal acts usually. However, the vocals, at least to me, are a balance of both black and death metal styles, not too low end growly, not too high end shrieky.

That being said, it still has a very dark and blasphemous black metal vibe and atmosphere to it. Maybe its the magic of the not so stellar overall production, maybe its the surprising dreadfulness and gloominess that settles within you as you continue to listen to the record. Whatever it is, the Magus somehow tends to capture the essence of black metal just as well as those inverted cross, leather and spikes clad black metal monsters I've previously mentioned have. Therefore, I can sort of understand why people mistook Sadistik Exekution to be a black metal band.

Moving on to my next point: this GODSEND (or shall I say 'SATANSEND') of a band lineup.

Each of the 4 members of this Insane lineup of Sadistik Exekution, made great use of their boundless talent and worked hard with it to present to us an extremely important, influential, creative, flavorful, and above all, fukking heavy and extreme metal release. But from what i can tell with their later releases, they had buckets of talent still to spare.

The men, the myths, the LEGENDS:

Rok, with his absolutely insane screams and growls that make me think of a barking bloody gory hell hound from... hell (like i haven't talked about hell enough). I consider him one of my favorite frontmen vocalists due to his stage presence and voice.

Sandy Vahdanni. So what if he Isnt the Reverend Kriss Hades we all know and love? His guitar riffs are a freakish combination of wrath, complexity and intensity, and really helps the album leave you with a lasting impression. And if that doesn't, his guitar solos will help drill the album into your head and then weld the drill in place.

DAVE FUKKING SLAVE, I may seem to be biased capitalizing his name, but that's because he is the most mentally insane member of Sad Ex, a band known for its mentally insane music. His bass guitar playing is a massive spiky mace to the stomach: extremely harsh, sharp, and bloody brutal at the low end.

Last but not least, Sloth. Sloth is definitely not a sloth unless appropriate. What I mean is that when a song really picks up its pace, he goes off at the drum kit like a machine gun goes off at its victim; fast and unrelenting. But as the music slows down, even to a crawl, hes a slow and power packing cannon, turning the drum kit into cannon fodder so to speak.

The reason why I have rated this 100%, is because Sadistik Exekution combined all of the great characteristics and styles of metal and also punk music released prior to the album, turned it up to 11, and somehow at the same time, created their own style and brand of metal they like to call "Death Mental", which they honed and perfected through their later releases.

If I somehow obtain a copy of this album in vinyl, I will die a happy man.

Thank you for reading this review, and as always:
"If you are a false, don't entry."

At the other side of the world, in Australia, there was some heavy stuff going on when it comes to metal. The scene was quite underground though and the bands had a hard time being noticed or gaining some sort of recognition. We had of course bands like Mortal Sin who managed to gain a decent reputation or Slaughter Lord that later became kind of a cult act because of how extreme it was and featuring comedian Steve Hughes within the line-up. Another of these group was obviously Sadistik Exekution and in their case, it took many years for them to actually get some material out despite being active since the mid 80s. With such a band name, one could expect some brutal shit from these guys and rightfully so. The first album of the band was recorded in 1988 and only released by 1991, which most likely caused the band to have some issues being put on the map along other ones. The "The Magus" album is nonetheless one hell of a record taking into consideration the time it was made.

The content of this album seems to be kind of a mixture of different recording session as the sound on certain tracks appears to be different than some others. Speaking of content, there's also not much material on the album if compared to many other releases at the time. We have about 31 minutes of play time within a total of eight songs. In a general overview, everything is pretty much straightforward in term of pace through the whole thing except for its intro and outro tracks. The first time I did listen to this record I find that it went so fast that I thought it was just like 20 minutes or so because of its incredible overall speed. It all starts off with the fuck-top spelled track "Transneobathasaurikaldelusionsoftheunknown" , which acts as the actual introduction. It kinds of sets the mood for what is coming up next as the first musical tune titled "Cautness Darling Blood" and this song is the real deal. The drums are pounding wtih furious blasts and guitars riffs are heavy as hell in addition to the evil vocals of "Rok". One of my favourite track is definitely the following one being the album title song "The Magus". It's basically three minutes of pure carnage with no breaks or significant tempo changes.

What I really liked on this record is the mood it puts you into and the atmosphere it gives off. Take for instance the most popular tune, which is "Agonizing the Dead", it starts off with a grim riff and a very creepy tone is used but eventually turns into a complete blast of furious early black/death metal. However, even if I am praising those aspects on this album, it still has its bunch of flaws, at least content-wise. Track like " I'll Kill You, Bastard" doesn't have much to provide on this whole release being just an outro that last for four minutes with basically the same beat. Just the name of the track doesn't sound really serious anyway and even though the lyrics were never released, I doubt there's anything worthy of the listener attention. Since the material is split between two distinct sound like the other tracks such as "Sadistikly Exekuted" and "Possessed Haemorrhage", I guess some people would have preference on each of the parts of the album.

So when it comes to the production values, I really prefer the first part of the album mainly because It feels like the songs were recorded in the depths of a catacomb. On the other hand, the remaining content has a more thrashy approach, it's not that I have an issue with that but it removes a bit of its originality. Overall, it's not a bad album at all and I enjoy pretty much all of it. We cannot deny the influence it had on the extreme metal scene of the 90s, of course the famous pictures where Euronymous is wearing a shirt of them gives a hint on that. Unfortunately, the band would not release anything that is that good beyond "The Magus" even if they have released a few other records. I would definitely recommend to give this one some attention as it might appeal some old school extreme metal fans.

Favourite tracks:

Agonising the Dead
Cautness Darling Blood
The Magus

Before Destroyer 666, before Bestial Warlust, Australia had Sadistik Exekution flying their flag for extreme metal. The raw death metal noise they released a little more than 25 years ago still remains a strong offering for this genre. The Magus is an ultra-violent album that would end up being characteristic of the country's scene and by now it should be considered a cult classic.

Most bands in the black/death metal department nowadays are known for Satanic and/or simple blasphemous themes. Sadistik Exekution, while still maintained that blasphemous aspect but where more off-the-wall when delivering that message. Though the band never published their lyrics, there's a nonsensical air to the band. This would become more apparent on their later albums, but even here the simple fact that tracks like "Spirits are Komming" and "I'll Kill Ya, You Bastard!" exist make this band a little harder to take seriously. However, this doesn't hinder the quality of the actual music. The riffs remain relentless and destructive sounding and make this album sound like a punishing heatwave in the Australian outback.

The guitars sound like they were recorded in different sessions. Tracks 2, 3, 5, and 7 are very noticeably different than the tone on tracks 4 and 6. The tracks in the former group end up being superior and one of the reasons why is because of the guitar tone. It just personifies the aforementioned heatwave atmosphere. This is apparent right away on the start of the title track that this album is blistering hot.

Though their music is light years away from sounding similar, I can't help but pick up a vibe in Sadistik Exekution similar to early Voivod. This scrappy no-fucks-given attitude is just as prevalent here as it is on War and Pain. Being an Australian band, the hellish Road Warrior sound is even more at home here on The Magus.

One final thought to consider is how influential this album could've been to the war metal subgenre. Blasphemy's Fallen Angel of Doom predates this album by a year, but The Magus was finished being recorded before that. If this saw release before that, that whole subgenre could've evolved a little bit differently. This is a very strong album that I'd recommend to all extreme metal fans.

In my mind, Possessed’s “Seven Churches” is, and always will be the first death metal album. Unfortunately, some misguided fools think that this is disputable, and that the first “real” death metal albums didn’t show up until 1987 with bands such as Death.

Get fukked! If “Seven Churches” isn’t the first death metal album, “The Magus” fucking is! Sure it wasn’t actually released until 1991, but if that’s an issue you can just kill yourself now. It’s the same thing as Repulsion really, recorded in ’86 yet released in ’89. “The Magus” is a forgotten classic. “The Magus” is the album that proves that Australia is fucking better than you. Chaotic? Sort of. Brutal? Sort of. Hell raising black infused death metal? Oh yeah. This is “Altars of Madness” before “Altars of Madness,” “I.N.R.I” before “I.N.R.I.”

In fact, it’s almost disturbing just how developed this is for it’s time. Don’t think this is just some thrash/black/death album, this is fully fledged blackened death metal. “Altars of Madness” is really the best comparison, and the two albums are very, very similar. Rok sounds like an eviler Dave Vincent, which combined with some heavy vocal reverb makes for some very, very haunting stuff. Think “Altars,” and add “I.N.R.I” and “Deathcrush.” That’s what “The Magus” sounds like, and if you’re reading this review as a black or death metal fan and thinking, “this album sounds like it kicks arse!” then you’d be damn correct in your assumption. This is insane for 1986, and even by today’s standards it’s still damn heavy/brutal/evil.

Many of the stylistic quirks of Sadistik Exekution that would later take their complete form in the chaotic maelstrom of the “Fukk” albums are yet to manifest in “The Magus.” Perhaps this leaves this as the most “accessible” Sadistik Exekution album, as much as I hate to admit such a thing is actually possible. The ultra-fast bass solos are absent, the random stringing of the words “fuck,” “cunt” and “AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH” are not here and the faster than fast guitar and drum work is lacking. Again though, don’t think I’m saying this is some “weak” album, because it’s still harder than 99% of the stuff you’ll ever hear. If you were repulsed by Rok calling you a “fukkin’ fukkin’ fukkin’ poof” on “Organized Sadistik Abuse” (from “Fukk”) then you might just be able to enjoy the band through this album.

Production wise, this album is awesome. Everything is audible, with a particular emphasis placed on Rok’s vocals and Dave Slave’s bass lines. The guitars are still nice and loud, as are the drums, providing for a well-rounded, heavy sound. It’s slightly rawer than “Altars of Madness” and black metal fans will feel right at home with the sound here. The production once again provides another “Altars – I.N.R.I” link, and it sound suitably, as the band would put it, fucked up.

You know, everytime someone bags Sadistik Exekution for their musicianship, I feel like breaking something. Let’s just ignore Dave’s insane bass skills (there are videos on YouTube of him performing at an art exhibition, check them out if you like bass at all!) and Sloth’s incredibly fast drum work. No matter how it may appear, Sadistik Exekution is a technically proficient and tight band. While “The Magus” is the simplest of their works, it’s no “Transilvanian Hunger,” and the occasional flirtation with some slightly more interesting drum patterns or guitar riffs does wonders for the album. Check out track six, “Lupercalia,” at 4:11 into the song. It’s a riff that sounds incredibly weird and out of place, but at the same time fits perfectly. I’d also like to note here that Sloth’s drumming features a somewhat primitive blasting technique that sounds very good in context of the album. It’s only mid-fast paced, but the effect is prominent due to the somewhat high position in the mix the drums possess (again it must be stressed, nothing overpowers another in the mix). Everything the band does here fits like the potato bake in a potato bake and sausage sandwich (a particular delicacy that I’ve invented, next time you have a BBQ, try it! It’ll be the best moment of your life!).

Sadistik Exekution occupies one of the largest positions in Australian metal history, and in reality should occupy a place in world metal history. Here is one of the earliest death metal bands, overlooked for reasons unfathomable to me. Unfortunately, Sadistik Exekution are too good for you for that. While you go listen to your pathetic “technical brutal death metal,” I’ll listen to this album (and the subsequent follow-ups) and know that whatever you listen to, it’ll never be as aggressive, brutal and plain FUKKING AWESOME as this band and their music. Perhaps that’s a good thing, if every person in the world listened to these guys it’d be one mightily fucked up world. I’ve really tried to keep the use of the word “fuck/fukk” in this review to a minimum, but even this, the least chaotic and mentally insane of Sadistik Exekution’s albums invokes such a strong feeling of absolute patriotism in me that I couldn’t help myself. Ultimately though, one thing is fact: This album is forgotten history and this band is fucking awesome.

FUCK!
YOU!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL!