Sadistic Force is a blackened speed metal trio making waves out of Austin, Texas. They released their first full length album in 2021 “Aces Wild '', which was soon followed up by a split entitled “Sadistic Rot” in 2022. That same year the band toured the UK and started working on their followup full-length album. Sadistic Force has been making their mark on the scene with their fast paced performances and landing some notable gigs including Hell's Heroes festival in 2022 and 2023, as well as 2 Minutes to Tulsa festival in 2023. They are set to release their second full-length album “Midnight Assassin” on October 13th. They recently released their first single off the album titled “Speeding Black Leather Hell” and I’ve been banging my head to the track ever since. Frontman James Oliver was kind enough to answer some questions for us:
Thanks so much for agreeing to talk to us. Can you give us a little history about your band? When did you get together and how did you start?
I started the project in either late November or early December of 2020 and wrote three songs to make an EP. I just wanted to try my hand at doing a musical project and making music similar to the stuff that I like. Playing drums isn’t my strong suit and I’ve never owned a drum set so I reached out to some potential drummers and ended up recruiting a demonic figure named Hell Troll to play drums on the first two EPs and the digital single that followed that. Shortly after recording that single (Lagoon of Doom), our current bassist Blaine contacted me about wanting to play bass in the project and essentially came as a rhythm section package with Jose on drums. They had actually been jamming together for a while and looking for a guitarist to form a band that was in the same vein as what I had been putting out.
What are your influences as a band? When and why did you each pick up instruments?
Some influences include Bewitched, Hellripper, Bonehunter, Ravencult, Motörhead, Tank, Running Wild, BAT, Speedwolf, Chapel, Hellsword, Terrörhammer, Knife, and Aura Noir.
We all picked up a guitar as early as possible in order to impress women and then two of us eventually migrated to bass and drums respectively. I personally started with learning punk songs, then graduated to metal once I had some chops.
I’ve been lucky enough to catch you guys perform twice while visiting Texas for Hell’s Heroes in 2022 and 2023. What was that experience like?
Both shows were great! The pre-party show that we played in 2022 is to this day the largest crowd we have performed in front of, and I really liked working with the very professional and accommodating stage crew that was working the fest. Then the next year when we played the after party show we got to do the more intimate environment which had a gritty energy. For instance, I grabbed a random guy’s head in between songs, which I would not have been able to do at the larger venue. Black Magic Social Club where we played is also really badass because it’s a dedicated metal/punk venue and is classified as an occult bar. I had been wanting to play a show there and that was a good one.
Do you have any funny or interesting stories from being on the road that you can share with us?
Our most recent out-of-state show was a weekend trip where we drove to Dallas, played a show there, and then flew to Denver. We were in Denver for less than 24 hours in what was a whirlwind of partying. After the show we got a rideshare to the airport to catch a 5AM flight back to Dallas and were definitely in party mode. The driver was not initiated into the world of rock n roll, but seemed like a cool guy, so we introduced him to the music of Thin Lizzy and UFO. He was blasting it loud as hell and ended up rocking so hard he drove past our gate. After he dropped us off at the right spot he drove off blasting UFO extra loud. That was pretty sick.
Tell me about the creative process on this new album? What was it like recording this album? How does it differ from your last?
It was the same in terms of me writing all the songs and then bringing them to the other guys to hammer out. I wrote about 85% of it the week after we returned from the summer UK tour we did in 2022. I had some time between work projects and basically wrote one complete song every day for a week. One massive difference in the two albums is that the first one was recorded before we had even played a single live show together and we had only been playing music together for about a month. We also spent quite a bit more time in the studio for this second album compared to the first. Believe it or not, “Aces Wild” was recorded in one and a half days. All drums, bass, and rhythm guitars on day one and then a half day where all the guitar solos and vocals were recorded.
What were some of the challenges you faced while recording “Midnight Assassin”?
We spent so much more time on this one and juggling work schedules to chip away at our parts was somewhat challenging. We spent two days together in the studio and moving forward from there everyone would get off work and then come record when they could. We also worked with an engineer we had never worked with before, so there was a somewhat different rhythm to the recording process than we had experienced on our last two recordings - “Aces Wild” and “Sadistic Rot” which were both recorded by Vampyric Hell Mummy. The new guy also usually works as part of a two-man team and his partner wasn’t involved in this record so I think there were some additional challenges on his end because of that. In addition to these factors, my amp died on the first night in the studio. I ended up recording all my parts on a borrowed amp that he had there in the studio.
I read that you were inspired by true crime and 80’s slasher films. Which movies had the most influence on the record? Tell me about any songs that were influenced by true crime stories.
I absolutely love the vibe of old school slasher films. Some of them that I had been especially stoked on include Blood Rage, The Mutilator, Pieces, Slumber Party Massacre 1 and 3, The Prowler, My Bloody Valentine, Evil Dead Trap, and New York Ripper.
As for the true crime inspired songs, that includes “Corpsewood Curse” which is about the Corpsewood Manor Murders, “Midnight Assassin” which is inspired by The Servant Girl Annihilator, “Nuremberg Nights” which is about Kuno Hoffmann, “The Butcher’s Apron” which is inspired by Peter Sutcliffe, and “Marked for Death” which denounces serial killers in general and mourns the many victims of these senseless, selfish, and often seemingly random atrocities.
What’s your favorite song on the new album and why?
That’s a hard one to choose, but I was really pleased with how “Howl of the Horde” came together and the energy captured on the recording.
The Texas scene seems to be thriving and here we like to highlight underground bands, is there any band in the scene we should check out?
Ninth Circle, Kill the Lizard, Panteon, and Nerve are cool bands. As far as classic shit from the 80s, I think Necrovore and Rigor Mortis are bands that demonstrate how Texas has brought the heat from early on.
What’s up next for Sadistic Force? Any future plans?
We’re focused on putting the album out and everything that goes with that. We have a rad album release show happening at the local heavy metal bar the day after the album comes out. We did the same thing at the same venue when we released the first album and this time we’ll be playing with some other good Texas bands – Black Jackal and Brüka. Beyond that we are hoping to do a US tour sometime in the not-too-distant future and our sights are set toward the east.
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