Sadism – Alliance – Album Review

Source // http://sonusinfernalis.cl

Reminiscent of Consuming Impulse era Pestilence and the occasional glimpses of grisly groove found on Obituary’s seminal Cause Of Death, Chilean death metallers Sadism are a band who released their debut in the early 90’s, remain stuck in the 90’s (this is by no means a bad thing) and seem resolutely committed to churning out albums (3 in the last 6 years) which honour the genre-defining records of death metal’s glory years.

With a level of consistency that ensures it’s 12 tracks not once outstay their welcome, this kind of back-to basics and time honoured deathly thrashing may be a familiar sound, but few deliver it with as much primal passion and rancorous glee as Sadism.

Spitting rage and malcontent, Sadism revel in administering maximum pain and from the furious “Putrid Golden Cord” to the closing atonal cacophony of “Alliance/We Decline..!”, highlights are bountiful. A relentless groove machine, Alliance is death metal with a devilish purpose and that purpose is to cave your skull into itty-bitty pieces. Which is just the way we like it.

While death metal of this kind can prove tiresome to write about – we all know what to expect, right – the barrage of inhuman vocals courtesy of the Martin Van Drunen-esque Ricardo Roberts and a tremendous diversity in pace and rhythm alleviates the death metal doldrums.

Solid and suitably spine-chilling stuff! 7/10