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It's come to my attention that in its 21 years of existence, The Metal Crypt has yet to have a single review written about L.A.'s mighty Death Metal warriors Sadistic Intent. To think that we spent so much time crushing posers that we neglected to talk about one of the best Death Metal bands ever, becoming the very thing we hate in the process. Well, somebody's gotta fix that mistake, so I guess I'll step forward and be the savior that this site needs.

Sadistic Intent are about as underground as a Death Metal band can get. They've been around since 1986 when they started as Devastation, releasing a bevy of demos and EPs over the course of their career without a single full-length to their name. All their releases are high-quality exercises in murky Death Metal, but I think it was with this EP, 1997's Ancient Black Earth, that they reached the peak of their unholy powers. True, it's only three songs, but every single one is a masterful display of frenzied, violent Death Metal that reeks of evil and hatred more than possibly anything else out there. The closest comparison I can make is to Morbid Angel's groundbreaking demo, Thy Kingdom Come, only this is far more brutal and intense than even Morbid Angel in their prime ever managed, right down to vocalist/bassist Bay Cortez sounding like the primordial, blood-soaked ancestor of David Vincent, making him among the best vocalists in the genre.

I mean, what more can I say? Sadistic Intent aren't about pushing genre boundaries, they're about smashing your fucking skull into them as hard as possible, and for my money, pretty much no one does it better than them. If you're a fan of the band, this is all old news, but for anyone unfortunate enough not to hear the unbridled wrath of Sadistic Fucking Intent, you need to fix that by starting here.