Sadistik Exekution

All Music Guide:

Legitimate contenders to the claim of "world's most insane extreme metal band," Australia's Sadistik Exekution formed in the mid-'80s and remained steadfastly committed to playing the fastest, most violently over-the-top music they could throughout their career. In some ways old-school and in others nearly avant-garde, their style mixed together aspects of black, thrash, death, and doom metal, often played at incredibly fast speeds, while at others rendered at a nearly dirge-like crawl. The group was founded in 1986 by vocalist Rok and bassist Dave Slave, although it took several changes before the rest of the lineup settled in place. During the late '80s, Rok and Slave moving to Melbourne and back, as well as trying a couple of lineups with members (or ex-members) of another Aussie extreme metal band, Slaughterlord, but nothing stuck. By 1988, however, the band did manage to settle on a quartet lineup -- rounded out by guitarist Rev. Kriss Hades and drummer Sloth -- long enough to record the material for their first LP. Still, it took two more years for the record, eventually entitled The Magus, to get released (the label was Vampire Records). Around this time, in 1991, Sadistik Exekution played their first live show, to a large crowd in their hometown of Sydney.

Work on their second release, eventually to be entitled We Are Death - Fukk You, finally began in 1993, this time with yet another new member on board, the Machanik (in place of drummer Sloth). This album was finally finished and released in 1994 on the French-based Osmose Productions label. In support of We Are Death, Sadistik Exekution embarked on their first European tour, with labelmates Absu and Impaled Nazarene also on hand; however, since the Machanik had fallen victim to mental instability issues, a new drummer again had to be found, this time in the form of Skitz (from the Aussie hardcore band Damaged). Upon returning, the band set about recording their next album,K.A.O.S., released in 1997 on Shock and later re-released in 2000 on Osmose. More instability followed, along with rumors that the band had finally broken up, but true to form, they came back from the dead yet again to release another album. Simply entitled Fukk, it came out in 2002, once again on Osmose, and showed that the band had no intentions of letting up or taming their act anytime soon.

Wikipedia:

Sadistik Exekution is a death metal band from Sydney, Australia. The band formed in 1985 and has existed somewhat sporadically ever since. While last playing live in 1999, the band recorded two more albums and while they have publicly declared to have disbanded several times since, the group reunited for a single performance in November 2009 at the first annual Australian Metal Awards in Sydney.

History [edit]

The band was formed after bass player Dave Slave met vocalist Rok outside an Iron Maiden concert in Sydney in 1985. In Melbourne, they connected with former Slaughter Lord guitarist Sandy Vahdanni and drummer Sloth Monkey, who was Dave Slave's distant cousin. With this formation, Sadistik Exekution recorded a demo and completed the album The Magus. Kriss Hades was then asked to join on guitar alongside Vahdanni, but in the meantime, Vahdanni left, and Sloth apparently became a born again Christian, stalling the band’s further activity. Nevertheless, the band’s outrageous behaviour on stage had already won them a fan base long before the album had even been recorded. During Slave and Rok's stay in Melbourne seeking musicians, Slave had appeared on the talent-quest segment of the Hey Hey It's Saturday TV program and proceeded to simply smash his bass guitar. Both he and Rok had featured in articles about extreme metal in Penthouse and People magazines and both had a reputation for turning up to virtually any heavy metal live show that was on to hand out stickers and flyers and intimidate people by doing "disgusting things in front of them." They were well-known among the key members of the Norwegian black metal scene, and Euronymous from Mayhem can be seen wearing one of the band’s t-shirts in a photograph later used as the cover of the famous Tribute to the Black Emperors bootleg album.

The Magus was finally released in 1991 by the Sydney label Vampire Records. In the meantime, Sloth apparently abandoned his Christian beliefs and rejoined Sadistik Exekution, allowing them to play live. Their performances featured Hades playing with dozens of safety pins in his flesh and Rok and Dave Slave often exhorting the crowd into singalongs. Audiences responded by throwing flowers and smiling, and the singer and bass player would often retaliate by entering the crowd and punching people.

Rok was also a 'pen pal' of the lead singer and founding member Quorthon of Swedish Black Metal pioneers Bathory, . Rok sent demonic hand drawn pictures to Quorthon who in return mailed back bones from an unknown skeleton. Rok saw this as a sign to continue his work further.

We Are Death [edit]

In 1993, Sloth left the band once again as they recorded their second album, and Steve "The Mechanik" Hoban played on one track. The completed album was sent to French label Osmose Productions. Though intended to be self-titled, Hades had written We Are Death... Fukk You! on the tapes as a reaction to what they believed was constant misrepresentation as a black metal band; the label mistook the words to be the title of the album and released it under that name. It quickly became a best-selling release for the label and in 1995 the group was invited on a European tour with Finnish band Impaled Nazarene and American act Absu. Hoban had injured his back at a Bolt Thrower concert after the recording sessions and was no longer able to play the drums. The Melbourne grindcore band Damaged had recently split up and drummer Matt "Skitz" Sanders was recruited by Sadistik Exekution. It was during this tour that one of the most famous incidents in the band’s history occurred. Sadistik Exekution had never done a full tour and were in fact better known for only playing once or twice a year. Sharing a bus with two other bands, Dave Slave lost control, destroying the tour bus. The tour proceeded the next day with the guitarist playing the rest of the shows with a badly broken finger. Upon returning to Australia, Sadistik Exekution ceased all activity for over a year while Hades recovered.

K.A.O.S. [edit]

With Sloth back in the band once more, Sadistik Exekution returned in 1997 with their third album, K.A.O.S.. Faster and rawer than anything the band had produced before, the album saw the beginning of a particularly active period for Sadistik Exekution with a steady stream of live performances and other projects. Dave Slave had been working on an album of electronic rock n’ roll for several years, finally releasing it under the name Digital Fiction in 1998 through a Brisbane distributor called Oracle. Early the same year, Rok recorded two solo albums, with Osmose releasing the first, This is Satanik, toward the end of the year. Kriss Hades joined the Sydney black metal band Nazxul, with whom he recorded an EP. Sloth recorded a series of demos consisting of some of his many punk rock songs under the name Bog.

At the end of the year, shortly after Rok had performed a solo show, Sadistik Exekution reconvened to play on New Year’s Eve. It was billed as their last show ever, but the band had often advertised their performances this way. Indeed, a few months later they took to the stage again at Sydney’s Globe Theatre. This show, however, was fated to be Sadistik Exekution’s last ever concert. The band remained dormant for the remainder of the year as Hades toured with Nazxul and the others concerned themselves with personal projects once more. Rok’s second album, Burning Metal, appeared in 2000, and Kriss Hades began piecing together several tracks that would make up his solo debut. The band maintained that it had ended as a live act, but when the line-up for that year’s Metal for the Brain festival was announced, Sadistik Exekution was billed as one of the headliners. While anticipation among fans was high that the country’s most notorious death metal band was finally making an appearance at Australia’s biggest metal event, Dave Slave broke his leg in a fight shortly before the show and the band had to withdraw.

Final recordings [edit]

A further two Sadistik Exekution albums were recorded, the first, Fukk released in 2002 and the second, simply called Fukk II, appearing two years later. Dave Slave has often affirmed that the band is no more, claiming to be busy with his solo act Doomed and Disgusting. He has also expressed an interest in acting, having made an appearance in a TV advertisement for The Real McCoy Snackfoods in 2003. Kriss Hades has established himself as a solo artist, producing an album of noise and dark ambience in 2002. He also maintains a parallel career as an underground artist. Sloth joined a western Sydney thrash band called Inslain in 2003 and was later member of a rock band called 8 Ball Junkies. Despite this, Sadistik Exekution made a live return in November 2009 as the featured act at the Australian Metal Awards in Sydney. In 2009 Rok appeared on JJJ's leading Heavy Metal radio show The Racket with Andrew Haug, Rok gave a lengthy interview with Andrew and spoke of his many adventures. In the interview, Rok made no further comments about Sadistik Exekution recording further albums. Later that month they appeared to a packed house at Fox Studios for the Australian Heavy Metal awards night where they were given the final spot for the night.