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Rating: This is the first true, proper, and complete album by Sadus, which, although it was released (let's say "brought out," because it wasn't made particularly public) in 1988 as "Illusions" and then resurfaced after two years with the same tapes but under the name "Chemical Exposure," has been and still remains largely overlooked by most, which is less explainable than usual because, unlike other prog groups or the subsequent albums by Sadus themselves, this record offers a good dose of rough and straightforward Speed Thrash that doesn’t repel either the "pure metalheads" or those who want to hear something interesting and, at the time, innovative.
Let’s be clear, nothing special, the songwriting remains on the brink of banality, and the sound quality, regardless of the production, reveals a certain immaturity in the choices; however, there are, in what I would say are inconsequential amounts, timid hints of rhythmic experimentation, typical of the progressive death metal of contemporaries like Atheist and the subsequent Cynic, which suggest the path increasingly rich with fusion and prog contaminations indeed undertaken by Sadus.
As an album, ultimately, it cannot be considered too much: most of the tracks are at best "fun to listen to" or particularly suited for headbanging, certainly Torture cannot be denied as a sacred, you might say prophetic track of thrash metal, but it surely doesn't satisfy as a composition. The three stars I assign to this album therefore go: one (the biggest) for what it promises (what it had promised); one for Steve who was not even twenty yet but as we say in scholarly language, he had the chops; and one for the lyrics of Torture, the most sincere, naïve, and direct cry of metal:
We need DTP,
death to posers is what I mean,
Stand tall, never fall
we will rise to kill'em all.
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