SADISTIC VISION is one of those bands that has flown way, way under the metal radar for decades.  They formed in New Orleans in the late '80s before relocating to Pennsylvania, where they are still based.  I'm sure the band has gone through a string of day-jobs, while always maintaining that tight familial bond that seems to blossom in the ugliest of places- mainly, the festering entrails of heavy metal. Their history together is evident in the tight twenty minute onslaught they bring on their new EP "Destroyer of All Dreams." It's no nonsense death metal, sprinkled liberally with thrashened chunks of riffage and the occasional PANTERA-like late-90s groove.

SADISTIC VISION attempts to lay a foreboding background with the minute and a half intro: Gregorian like chorals laid out over a two-chord arpeggiated guitar that gradually swells into a pus-filled goiter ready to burst into the death metal world of this three-decade old band. "Unremorsed Killing" pays tribute to late eighties thrash masters with a pounding intro before launching into blast beat hell.  Brian Reed's bass is punchy and rollicking, high in the mix, complementing Beau C.'s tasteful (relative to the putrid entrails surrounding them) riffs. The breakdown in the song showcases this interplay perfectly, as the three launch into an off-kilter bridge before taking the song elsewhere about two minutes in.  It's a great piece of three-minute metal that goes in about fifteen different directions, all of them suitably disgusting and vomit-inducing. "Repressed Mind" is the EP centerpiece, ominous doom-inspired traditional metal, complete with synth strings and an arpeggiated riff that sounds like the echoing caverns of an ancient tomb.  The band marches into the riffage with the confidence of Ghengis Khan's invading armies of the 12th century.

While SADISTIC VISION is firmly entrenched in the mire of death metal, there's a lot of thrashened influences and punk rock DISCHARGE weaving its way through these chords of misery.  Three minutes into "Repressed Mind" and Sadistic Vision pops the rock and roll clutch and Beau C. plays some of his most memorably leads on the album. "Destroyer of Dreams" is a doom metal master-class, simple synth buried in the background over a riff that sounds like the treads of a tank being bogged down in the flesh and blood of thousands of corpses.  Blast beats abound as the band locks into trad death metal, semi-metalcore breakdowns, and some black metal-ish sweeps of militaristic glory. Closer "J.C." is a piece of hardcore mastery that shows the band can bring the four-to-the-floor mosh pit to any vomit-stained barroom floor on the Atlantic Coast.

While Pennsylvania may be more known for making chocolate bars and having the worst fans in all of professional sports, SADISTIC VISION's "Destroyer of All Dreams" is another confident product released from these mid-Atlantic stewards of death. It's good to know that the bonds these three have forged over the past three decades are those blazened over the burning embers of a blacksmith's cauldron.  It's heavy metal for the masses, a death-inspired foray into steel-induced madness.