To say that the beginnings of the fringe extreme of metal are flooded with nuance and ambiguity is an obvious assessment, but trying to pick apart the details of said broad statement is quite a daunting task, but one well worth it when considering all of the stellar bands who were pushing the envelope in the 80s. By 1988, the bonds that held the sinister trio of black, death and thrash metal together, to the point that bands largely considered thrash metal by today's standards were referred to by any of those 3 sub-genre names interchangeably in the media, had begun to melt away. But for the most part, bands that were pushing the limits of extremity in the thrash template still exhibited characteristics that were equally attributable to bands like Death, Morbid Angel and Deicide on their earliest studio offerings, thus it would be a mistake to refer to albums like "Schizophrenia" and "Seven Churches" as simply being glorified thrash metal albums, though they don't go quite as far as the subsequent 3 in terms of their chaotic and atonal elements, which largely came to define the genre in the 1990s.
A rather curious and sorely overlooked rung in the ladder between the 2 previously mentioned groups of bands is Sadus, a band that ended up launching the career of none other than Steve DiGiorgio, who tends to be better known for recent exploits with the likes of Iced Earth and Testament. Their impressive and wildly frenzied debut "Illusions (Chemical Exposure)" is arguably the earliest example of an evenly balanced hybrid of the percussive, riff happy character of west coast, Bay Area influenced thrash sound typified in Exodus, as well as the edgier, nastier protagonist represented by the then growing Teutonic thrash movement and more death infused sound of Sepultura. In fact, the chaos factor (such as frequent blast beats and tremolo riffs) and the dynamic display of shouts and shrieks put out by Darren Travis are the only real thing that keep this from sounding like a shorter version of "Beneath The Remains" a full year before it came into being.
The general tone and tenor of this album is forward looking, anticipating a more multi-dimensional approach where tightness and an occasional creepy, atmospheric interlude with feedback noise are common, and one where song structures are a bit less predictable. Case and point "Chemical Exposure", a weird instrumental that closes the album and listens like a noise-tinged answer to the doom-infused character of Slayer's stylistic semi-departure "South Of Heaven". While an out-lier on an album that tends to be dominated by slightly more tightly conceived answers to Kreator's standard fair at the time, it definitely paints the picture of a band that is going beyond the usual tricks of up tempo, palm muted power chords with the occasional breakdown, and this proves to be the case on all of the songs that precede it.
When gaging the frequency of sub-3 minute and even sub-2 minute songs on here, once might be tempted to draw an inference to a stripped down, methodical approach along the lines of "Reign In Blood", but the actual picture proves to be a bit different. A lot of this can be attributed to the wild guitar soloing that goes well beyond even the insanity of King and Hanneman and sounds more like a preview for what Trey Azagthoth accomplished on "Altars Of Madness", as well as DiGiorgio's raunchy bass work which almost seems to be searching for something along the lines of what Cryptopsy would be working with in the mid 90s. But even without that, the clarity of the guitar work and the wild yet highly precise drum work take this in a somewhat more technical direction than the mid 80s work of Slayer and Kreator, which is what this album usually ends up getting compared to.
As tends to be consensus, this album is the absolute zenith of Sadus' still ongoing and evolving career. It's an album by a crazed pack of wolves on the hunt for greater prey, bursting forth from the late 80s underground with a desire to surpass the existing orthodoxy of American thrash metal. While it is sometimes argued that this album got a bit closer to the death metal sound than even the earliest works of Death, which parallel this era, a careful deconstruction of its overall elements puts it a bit closer to the ambiguous death/thrash hybrid that tends to be the final category of fellow pioneers Sepultura and Possessed. To be fair, Schuldiner was equally as influenced by Possessed as Sadus was, but the ultimate results heard on "Scream Bloody Gore" and "Leprosy" are quite different, and ultimately a tiny bit closer to the 90s sound than this album. But for those seeking a great death thrashing experience, this is about as good as it gets for 1988.
Produced by Sadus
Engineered by John Marshall
Mixed by John Marshall and Sadus
Record & mixed at Starlight Sound Studios, april-july '88
Mastered by Eddy Schreyer ar Future Disc, Hollywood, CA
All songs written by Sadus
"Illusions" originally released on Sadus Records, reissued by Roadrunner Records as "Chemical Exposure"
Sadus Records also released this as a cassette with the green cover at right, and the title Chemical Exposure. When Roadrunner picked up the album, they used this as the basis for their artwork.
Re-released in 2006 with the following bonus tracks:
11. Desolator (Demo) (3:50)
12. Torture (Demo) (2:43)
Remastered and re-released in August 2007 on Displeased Records with liner notes from Steve Di Gorgio, discography and lyrics (even for the bonus tracks) and the following bonus material:
- Death to Posers demo
- Certain death demo
- Certain death videoclip
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