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Personnel: Darren Travis (vocals, guitar); Jon Allen (drums). Audio Mixer: John Marshall . Liner Note Author: Steve DiGiorgio. Recording information: Starlight Sound Studios (04/1988-07/1988). Thanks to a pair of amazingly influential demos -- D.T.P. Demo (1986) and the cassette-only Certain Death (1987) -- and the world-spanning cassette tape-trading network thriving in the late '80s, Antioch, CA's Sadus, like so many of the era's heavy metal bands, became an underground sensation long before they even recorded their first album proper, the simply titled Illusions. Finally issued in late 1988, and produced by Metal Church guitarist John Marshall, Illusions was initially and understandably considered yet another Bay Area thrash metal album -- though a very accomplished one at that, given its unusually clear sound for an independent release. Yet, in retrospect, the album stood balanced on a knife's edge between the already fading (though few were aware of it) thrash scene, and the death metal movement about to replace it. Indeed, much like Sepultura's similarly transitioning Schizophrenia LP of a year earlier, key Illusions tracks like "Certain Death," "Torture," "Fight or Die," and even the rather funny "Sadus Attack," still played by the former style's unfailingly frantic, breakneck-speed rules, rarely ever slowing down to preempt the latter's greater dynamic diversity. But the young Sadus players' already awesome technical abilities clearly belonged with the next generation of post-thrash deathsters (particularly soon to be death metal superstar bassist Steve Digiorgio), and their jaw-dropping displays on additional offerings like "Torture" and "Chemical Exposure" often boasted a slew of escalating songwriting and performance complexities that were quite beyond the earlier Bay Area scene's limits. Actually, If there's any one thing hindering Sadus' inclusion within the next wave, it would be Darren Travis screaming/spitting lead vocal style, which, though hardly musical in nature, still derived from earlier frontmen such as Slayer's Tom Araya or Kreator's Mille Petrozza (see the very Kreator-like "Hands of Fate," another old demo reworked), instead of the Cookie Monster-growl typical of death metal. And, regardless of all this mostly academic, cross-subgenre debate, the fact is Illusions was a very fine debut, reportedly selling upwards of 7,000 copies, and leading to Sadus' ensuing deal with Roadrunner Records, who eventually reissued the LP in 1991, after retitling it Chemical Exposure. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia
