With ancient dreams in mind and a classic death metal itch nipping at their sense of purpose since the late 80’s Pennsylvania-based thrashing death metal trio Sadistic Vision return for another go at their ten year in the works revival with this impressive latest EP. A fairly succinct set of cuts from a name barely known outside of a certain sector, it’d be easy to overlook what these folks are doing on ‘Destroyer of All Dreams‘ per somewhat basic grooves and occasionally rocking rhythms but they’ve reached a certain point of potency and detail here which should catch the ears of old heads and folks seeking the thrash-adjacent standards of ‘old school’ death metal.

Sadistic Vision formed circa 1989 in the New Orleans area (before moving to PA that same year) between a core quartet of folks who’d more-or-less maintain the line-up of their first demo tape (‘World of Confusion‘, 1992) which I’ve found no online/digital copies of despite a fair bit of research. Having risen into metal fandom during a golden era and starting their own efforts just as the medium was beginning to reach mainstream appeal doesn’t necessarily guarantee these folks are limited to the thrash ’til death phenomenon where a thrash foundation lead to a death/thrash result. If we only had their ‘Reasons Unknown‘ (1994) demo tape to go by I’d consider the first steps the band took rhythmically related to the early-to-mid 90’s thrash metal slowdown with groove focused death metal in mind. That particular tape and this latest EP pull from a broad spectrum of late 80’s and early 90’s grooves for its main fuel, not entirely dissimilar to the shift that bands like Demolition Hammer (‘Time Bomb‘) and Massacra (‘Sick‘) made circa 1994 which applies to the general vernacular and the occasionally swinging riff. Though the comparison doesn’t ultimately hold up, we could look to an obscure band like Malicious Onslaught who were similarly arisen from a love for Slayer, heavier grooves, and early death metal for a general example of where the deeper underground standard (as in, unnoticed by majors) was around the time these folks were initially active.

At some point beyond 1994 the band split and they’d returned in 2013 with a line-up similar to their original gig and eventually put out a three song EP (‘III‘, 2016) which’d felt entirely related to their earlier material but certainly wasn’t a major standout for many folks and had some questionable overall design choices. Having spent 2003-2013 scouring the archives, obsessing over death and thrash metal demo tapes and the United States underground in particular I was pretty surprised I’d never heard of Sadistic Vision and I suppose my point is that while their sound might appear to be a “relic” in some respects there aren’t necessarily extensive archives which’d documented their deal today, and not much persists from back in the day. So, when their debut full-length (‘Rebirth‘, 2020) hit there was no baked in hype for it and I’m not sure many folks noticed. Eh, and I’ll not beat around the bush in saying it wasn’t particularly good with a lot of pretty slow, choppy riffing and uninteresting groove-forward songwriting (see: Konkhra, Criminal) which didn’t speak to the most classic era of death metal so much as it did the ex-thrasher era of the early 90’s where folks either went Pantera-core or went home.

The insight gained from digging through Sadistic Vision‘s past discography is twofold, first it allows us to manage expectations for a fairly typical band who’ve hit a high standard for thrashing death metal in the past and (for my taste) missed it once or twice as well. Second, it highlights the general refinement of the material on ‘Destroyer of all Dreams‘ compared to their most recent release both in terms of production values and amped up compositional feats. Tightened rhythms, higher riff count and Slayer-isms abounding take my mind to an ‘Envenomed‘-era Malevolent Creation kinda place as we chunk into “Unremorsed Killing” and begin to feel the rapid fire clip of ideas course through without expecting anything particularly technical to occur within the ~4-5 riff run that kicks things off. For the hyper analytical guitarist a lot of these movements will be riffing-by-numbers but to my ears they are a distillation of basal death metal groove with the right attack in mind. You’ll have to be flexible when taking some of the more wobbly, swinging grooves of “Repressed Mind” into account as they do eventually go somewhere with it beyond ~1:35 minutes in even if it takes a minute or so to sound mean.

Every moment of those first two pieces appears lined up with purpose, avoids fumbling around with excessive counts when tipping over into mosh metal riffs and maintains a strong enough level of attack which delivers upon the ‘traditional’ death metal feeling they’re aiming for. Where I start to check out a bit comes with the somewhat plain title track which ties off this fairly short (~17 minutes) but tightly wound EP, “Destroyer of All Dreams” introduces itself with ambient keys and pushes its pace up quick but the next three or so riffs didn’t hit for my taste, though I’d appreciated the slower paced opening and closing moments of the song. Sub-two minute closer “J.C.” smokes us out for a strong finish and I found the whole experience blazed past with a strong initial impression for less than twenty minutes of music but I’d basically lost steam with this record around the tenth or so spin, enjoying but not dying for it.

Despite the band sounding their most focused, the drumming much improved, and the fidelity of this recording being well balanced toward heavier guitar tones and strong bass presence the riffs only hit about two thirds of the time for my own taste. I’d ultimately end up appreciating Sadistic Vision‘s sound and the intent of their attack but not quite getting there in terms of moment-to-moment action. A moderately high recommendation.

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