This EP was released on August 24th this year. The last project I heard from Sadistik was the original Salo Sessions EP, which dropped back in 2016. I was introduced to him when he was featured on the CunninLynguists’ Strange Journey, Vol. 3 album. I still need to check out that Altars album he dropped last year. Anyway, the original Salo Sessions was pretty good, so I think I’m gonna enjoy this one.
Tracklist
1. Kerosene Dreams produced by win32
2. Yokai produced by Sunivega
3. Crown produced by v a s s h & win32
4. The Way Down featuring Trizz produced by The Virus & Antidote
5. Echoes featuring Deacon the Villain produced by Young God
6. Heaven’s Gate Away Team produced by Young God
7. Perseus Remix featuring Slug Christ produced by Ronny J
I listened to the original Salo Sessions right before checking this project out just to get a feel for what I’d be getting into. It’s a lot more varied sonically than I remembered. I honestly forgot how good it is. I honestly might have underrated it in my review.
Anyway, Kerosene Dreams continues the dark sound that the original Salo Sessions project had. To be fair, it seems like all of Sadistik’s music has this dark, spacey production style. It’s a pretty short song, but it’s actually really good. I like the beat, and Sadistik’s lyrics are really cool, even though they’re kinda hard to decipher occasionally.
I’m rigged with rigor mortis stored in a morgue of the tortured
Immortalized my scorn born on a scorched earth
Torrential downpours pouring on our pores; I’m porcelain
Somebody should have hung me in that orchard
He’s good at putting together really cool rhyme patterns. The song’s just one verse and a hook at the end. It doesn’t feel incomplete despite it’s short length. The music video’s kind of disturbing, but not in a bad way.
The production on Yokai is fucking awesome. It has Japanese & Trap influences. The beat is easily the best aspect of the song. The verses were kind of disappointing to me to be honest. They’re pretty short, and none of the lyrics really stood out in a good way to me. They weren’t really bad though. They just didn’t excite me. There’s a lot of Japanese influence in the song, which is cool. The hook is nothing special. I enjoyed the song. I definitely didn’t like it as much as Kerosene Dreams, but I still think it’s entertaining enough.
I like the softer production on Crown. The first verse is much more satisfying than any of the verses on the previous track. The pitch shifted vocals on the hook work better than they should. He’s not really doing anything different on this track, but it’s still really solid. It’s definitely a step up from the track it follows. I like the way The Way Down fades in. The beat’s really dope. The song has a really simplistic structure. It’s just two verses. I’m not familiar with Trizz, but he did his thing. Neither of the two verses really blew me away, but they’re sufficient. The song sounds kind of incomplete. It just feels like something’s missing. I kind of enjoyed it, but I don’t know if I’d come back to it. It just feels kind of barebones. Is barebones one word? Or is it bare bones? Maybe it’s bare-bones… Whatever, it doesn’t fucking matter.
Echoes stands out from the tracklist the most to me due to the feature from Deacon the Villain. The beat is really fucking dope. The first verse from Sadistik is fine. One thing that was super disappointing to me is the fact that Deacon the Villain only does the hook. He doesn’t have a verse. He sounds really good singing the hook, so it’s still a pretty solid feature, but a verse would’ve been the cherry on top. It’s still one of the better songs on the project in my opinion though. Heaven’s Gate Away Team is definitely an intriguing title for a song. I think cults are super interesting; it’s crazy to me how people can be manipulated and brainwashed into doing such horrible things. Anyway, it’s cool how the first verse is about the mass suicide that was committed by the cult members in 1997. That’s just such a fucked up situation. The production is pretty nice. The second verse was really dope. The song ends with what sounds like a sample of Marshall Applewhite speaking. Stuff like that is always creepy to me. Tech N9ne did that on a song once. I can’t remember which one it was. Anyway, it’s a good song. It’s probably not my favorite on the whole project so far, but it’s definitely not one of the weakest tracks either. The original version of Perseus was released as a promotional single back in 2016. I’m gonna be honest… I don’t really like the song. The original version was kinda cool, but I’m really not feelin’ this Slug Christ verse. I’m not familiar with him, so this was my introduction to him as an artist. It’s not a good look honestly. That verse was kinda bullshit. He just comes off like a fuckboy. It was interesting hearing Sadistik over a Ronny J beat though. His verse was fine. Slug Christ kinda ruined it for me though. The hook is nothing special, but it works I guess. I’m not gonna come back to the song. There are aspects of it that I like, such as the production. However, as a whole, I think the song’s just decent.
This is a pretty good EP. However, I don’t think it’s as entertaining as the original Salo Sessions project. There’s nothing on this project as good as Out the Dark. None of the songs on this EP really blew me away. If you’ve heard any of Sadistik’s recent material you should know what to expect from this. It’s really just more of the same: grave imagery & complicated lyricism. It’s a satisfactory listen, but it’s not a huge mistake if you decide to skip it. It’s dope though.
Favorite Song: Echoes
Least Favorite Song: Perseus
B-
Watch the video below for more thoughts on this project.
Focus Hip Hop 