Label: Agonia Records
Date: March 7th, 2025
Another band whose debut album made a stunning impression on me is Italian Sadist. It was in 1993 and full-length I’m talking about was, of course, “Above the Light”. To be honest, I think it’s just one of the best ever records of the genre. I know it may be the result of nostalgia for so called old good times, but despite everything, Sadist has always stood out from multitude of ensembles. They always played their own way, which, especially in days of their first albums, was basically unheard of. Perhaps that’s why I loved them from the very first time listening to the album mentioned above. Just like Nightfall, Sadist never ever let me down. This is also so in case of “Something to Pierce”, what inevitably proves that I most likely need a psychiatric consultation as soon as possible!
On one hand this is the real death metal, but since the guys always went their own way, it’s just not for everyone. I tell you even more, you must be as fucked in your head as I’m to enjoy these sounds. Otherwise, you won’t withstand even one listening to Sadist’s 10th album, not to mention wanting to come back to it. Well, to be honest, I think even tolerating this creativity requires certain psychotic disorders. I, of course, have no intention of describing in the smallest details what Tommy and Trevor serve us. And there are at least two reasons for that. First of all, it’d take too much time and even space – I’d have to write at least novella – there’s so many touches and so on. And I dare say that any of you are eager to read for so long. I’ll even ignore the fact that it’d be like watching paint dry. The second reason of this decision is that, and here’s another proof my mind works at least strangely, I think such way of writing about music is like groping with a blind man through a wall. You know, music, just like any other art form, isn’t only about technical skills and hate vivisection. Of course, it’s desirable to mention some guitar tricks and so on. But on the other hand, these are only means of expression serving to higher purpose, doesn’t it? Anyway, in this case, I have the impression, there’s more guitar tricks then “normal”, “regular” riffs. Well, this is just Tommy’s style to play guitar – riffs are a little bit, at least seemingly, disorganized, played in random order, slightly without any order and without a lineup. It can, especially for inexperienced ears, seem like Tommy plays what just crosses his mind and doesn’t care about anything else. We also have here and there some slower parts or short fragments, which increase the feeling of cacophony and chaos. To make long story short, this creativity is difficult to perceive – also thanks to remaining components (drums, bass and vocals – in the most Trevor’s growling, but also…; especially didn’t end the sentence to make you curious to check out what I mean).
And now I’ll write something what any normal reviewer would write in the beginning, in the first paragraph. “Something to Pierce” contains twelve not too long and at the same time not too short (longest is about five minutes and seventeen seconds, the shortest – three minutes and three seconds) to twist your mind tracks taking forty-six minutes and forty seconds. But even more important thing is the fact that this, in my opinion, masterpiece (Sadist have in their discography even better albums, but…) is still quite fresh stuff. Its premiere took place March 7th thanks to the label I was once, in pre-internet times, what meant sending regular letters with tons of flyers, in touch with. This label comes from the city of Piła which lays quite close to my home-city. It calls Agonia Records and offer “Something…” in both digital and all possible physical formats. But if you want to get four-color 12”, you must be fast, because this is limited edition and as I know there’s only few copies available. So, contact the label if you’re interested in torturing your mind with such sounds!
