The Magus

by William York

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.