Sadist - Something to Pierce

Angry Metal Guy

Through Sadist’s classic run, from 1993’s Above the Light to 1997’s Crust, the imitable Italians carved a path around emergent death-thrash, progressive death, and groove sounds with a synth-laden and horror-guided flair as pillars of their heritage. And though their hiatus to reunion with 2007’s self-titled comeback burst forth with an aggressive energy that encapsulated their extreme and unique breed of work, the path afterward has remained fairly rocky. The freedom to be Sadist in all their never-replicated Goblin keys meets Pestilence riffs with a B-movie attitude has resulted in some excursions that felt more style than substance. In that sense, with 2022’s Firescorched, the embrace of techy fusion wrapped tightly around a carnival core fueled the promise of a fresh and focused Sadist. Can Something to Pierce, then, continue this late-career stab at glory?

For the second album in a row, Sadist has leaned on outside talents for their rhythmic core, this time absorbing the bass-drum duo of Italian progsters Fate Unburied, who have also acted as the band’s live setup.¹ And in grooving lockstep, the duo rumbles about with a throbbing double-time and blasting fervor between founding guitarist and keys maestro Tommy Talamanca at his most garish and ripping. Early tracks like the breathy and bouncy “Deprived” and “Kill Devour Dissect” find that has rooted the Sadist sound in the campy world of blood splattered jungles and terror-drenched cistern ruins since 1995’s Tribe. In vocalist Trevor Nadir’s ripping howls and raspy cries, you can almost smell the rising of the undead against Talamanca’s Fulci-tinged, surrealistic compositions.

Something to Pierce by Sadist

Alas, there’s not much plot to bind the horror-tinged persona that Something to Pierce wears as brazenly as it does deep death metal grooves. But that groove—that groove is, of course, persistent and slinky in a way that has always fused Talamanca’s knotted, progressive riffs and jazzy, heroic solos with an unbreakable flair. In that sense, though, Something to Pierce strikes in a uniform manner—a collection of songs that alternates between sliding riff intros and sparkling synth motifs that both bubble and bustle to gruesome and thrashing crescendos. As such, it’s the iterative nuance that colors Sadist’s stride—the swelling bass grunt of “Something to Pierce,” the snare roll to stomp of “The Sun God,” the escalating vocal grunt choir of “The Best Part Is the Brain”—and sells some memorability into the experience.

Yet, memorable or otherwise, no one has quite the attack that Sadist does, even at their most comfortable. Though veteran fans may feel at home in the swirling twists of cinematic, MENA-laced melodies, creeping ambience, and virtuosic guitar fills that lace Talamanca’s playing, newcomers may find a novel solace in the eclectic atmosphere that Something to Pierce conjures. The front half, in particular, plays more directly in its progressive death onslaught, serving jagged riff tumbles and stronger chorus structures that recapitulate in “One Shot Closer” before Sadist launches into a fuller, snake-charming glory. And, in turn, ending on the credits roll of “Respirium,” an instrumental with little ties to the aggression that pervades all that preceded it, requires full acceptance of the quirky world that Sadist builds—the one-two wobble-toned escapade of “The Best Part…” and “Nove Strade” makes it a little easier. After all, it’s only in this world that this bleep and swoon, desert scene patches, and bongo prancing make any sense.

That Sadist continues to walk undeterred along their own path now thirty-four years into existence is nothing short of a macabre miracle. Owing, in part, a peerish thanks to progenitors like Nocturnus and Atheist, the Genoese delicacy that Sadist presents has blossomed and rotted and reformed recognizable and largely uncontested. Why, in the annals of Angry Metal Guy, the Sadist tag itself directs in style only to more Sadist. So, Something to Pierce may not represent a bold new take on that lineage, neither as technical or raging or whimsical as past peaks. But Sadist, in a practiced and powerful groove, remains as dedicated and energetic as ever to their progressive and deathly craft, with ears virgin to their dastardly wiles hopefully finding something to throw them deep down a Sadist hole.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Agonia Records | Bandcamp
Websites: sadist.it | facebook.com/sadstofficial
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025

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