As soon as I pushed play on this CD and the beefy, Italian horror rock blasted out of my stereo, I became a fan of The Sade. It’s tough being a fan of horror in music. The majority of it is unoriginal Misfits rip-offs by people who haven’t bothered to scratch the surface of the horror genre. The next CD in my review pile has an Army of Darkness tribute cover and I’m just dreading it. Yes, I love Army of Darkness and the Evil Dead movies, but you can’t imagine the number of dreadful songs I’ve listened to about those flicks. There’s so much more to the horror genre than Ash and Misfits style “whoa-ohhh”s, and The Sade proves it. The second song on this CD is a howling tribute to a short story called “The Werewolf” by Angela Carter. It’s rare for a band to tip me off to a horror story I don’t know, so I’m impressed. But it takes more than a solid understanding of the genre to make a good record. The shit still has to rock. The Sade does, without getting sucked into any of the clichés. This is full-on rock, with deep, driving vocals and machete-swinging guitar solos. Oh, but check this out: By the third song, they’ve introduced an eerie string section that adds a perfectly gruesome touch without detracting from the direction of the track. Halfway into the record, they also throw in some insane tenor and soprano sax solos. It’s fucking wild. But they don’t abandon all the traditional tools either. In the second-to-last song, they whip out some of the most effective “whoa-ohhh”s I’ve heard in a while, and then they close out the record with an acoustic country stomper that puts the best of the psychobillies to shame. I’m going to listen to this CD a lot.
–mp (thesade.com)