Tough Riffs 2016 interview snippet with guitarist/cofounder Rick Cortez...
Sadistic Intent was formed in 1987. Who came up with that name? Is there any story behind it?
Did you consider any other versions as well? Who made the logo for you?
In reality, Sadistic Intent has its roots in 1986 when we were called Devastation. Bay and I had met a drummer and guitarist/vocalist in our high school that wanted to start a band with us. Bay wanted to play guitar so they were okay with it and the guitarist ended up becoming our vocalist. Bay and I wanted to play faster and heavier but the vocalist already had his songs written which were not that way and we compromised. After a while he told us that we needed to make radio friendly songs because with our style of song writing we’d never get played on commercial radio. Bay and I didn’t want that and the band sided with us, then we ended up finding another vocalist and that is when we changed the name to Sadistic Intent. As far as inspiration for the name, that came to me from the Slayer song “Angel Of Death” when Tom yells, “Sadistic, surgeon of demise”. That was the spark that lead to the name of the band. I remember we had come out with eight names but in the end, we narrowed it down to Sadistic Intent! Back then we did not have the internet and we figured that although some names sounded great, chances were that some other band(s) around the world would also think the same. Ultimately, we felt that Sadistic Intent was original and it fit our musical style well. As far as the logo, back then we had a friend who called him self Legionz, and he would draw a lot of our gig flyers in the early days. Every time we had a gig he would draw a new logo and we actually had several logo’s back then! In those days we thought that was cool but eventually we thought it would be a good idea to stick to one logo and it was hard to pick only one so we picked two of them! If you look at our first MLP you can see both logos. After a while we made the decision to stick to the one we use today.
What was your first concert like? How active was the LA scene? What bands did you usually share the stage? At early days, did you manage to support any national acts?
The Metal scene in L.A. was basically splitting up, there was the Guns N Roses and Poison type of bands that were allowed to play the Sunset Strip Hollywood clubs, and then there was the fledgling group of bands like us playing our new style of extreme music. By 1988, with the exception of Slayer the popularity of the pioneering Thrash/Death/Black Metal bands had gone down, especially due to bands changing their styles or breaking up. By then the Hardcore Punk and Crossover scene had gained a lot of momentum. Death Metal in those days was truly underground and there was not many fans of it here in Los Angeles at all. Therefore, we were sort of forced to play shows with a lot of the Punk bands and of course the Thrash bands. Our first gig was actually a back yard party in the city of South Gate. Honestly, I do not remember who else played that night but I remember it was a mixed crowd of Thrashers and Punkers of around 100 people and there was even a few skinheads who showed up! We thought they were there to start trouble but they actually ended up in the pit during our set! From what I recall, the crowd responded well to us but the police showed up during our set and we had to stop playing! They told everyone to leave and after the police left, most of the crowd was gone but we ended up hanging out there with music on a stereo and drank a lot of beer! Heheh I can’t recall all the bands we shared the stage with in the very beginning but some that come to mind are Terrorizer, Brutal Assassin, LKK, Darkness LA, Suburban Warfare, Demolition, Clowns Gone Bad, etc. Thanks to our 1988 rehearsal tape, we got on our first big show with national acts opening up for Dark Angel, Dr Know, & Forbidden, the band that had Slayer’s future drummer Paul Bostaph. It went great and after that we started getting invited to more club shows and we stopped doing the backyard parties. At that time, I remember on the television news they would talk about the gang violence and death toll every week. Then some of the gangs in L.A. had started going to the backyard gigs and looking for trouble, it got really fucked up! There was literally some people who got killed at these backyard parties! We seen some serious violence and we even had close calls with guns pulled out on us so once we started getting invited to do the club shows, it was time to move forward.
In 1989, you released another demo, "Conflict Within". What can you say about the recording process? How many labels did you contact with it?
We recorded that demo at a garage that was converted into a studio which was called Cage Studios. If I’m correct, it was a 16 track mixer recorded onto half inch reels. The owner of the studio was actually the uncle of our ex-vocalist from Devastation. At first we thought he would not record us because his nephew was no longer in our band but he was cool and still worked with us. He basically tracked (recorded) the drums first, then the bass, then the rhythm guitars, guitar solos and in the end the vocals. Then of course the mixing was the final part. We told him to put up the treble on the cymbals because with all the tape trading we did at the time, we would notice the treble/cymbals always seemed low. With tapes being a copy of a copy, the treble would get lower so we thought it was a good idea to raise the cymbals on the demo. As far as gear that we used back then, since we did not have much money, we bought some cheap used amps and cabs (speakers). The Yamaha solid state amp I owned at the time did not have self distortion so I used a Boss Heavy Metal to get that sound. I had a 4x12 cabinet (half stack) but I can’t remember the name brand, I know it wasn’t a Marshall. I’m pretty sure the guitar I used was an Aria Pro II that actually belonged to Bay. My guitar at that time was an Elektra (Les Paul copy) but I didn’t I use it on that recording. As far as labels, I personally do not recall even trying to send one copy to a label, at least I don’t remember thinking about that during that time. We were underground and that kept us busy just keeping up with all the aspects of the band. We took copies of the demo to Wild Rags Records, the actual record shop that was around back then. After the owner saw that our demos sold well and got good reviews in the underground ‘zines, he asked us if we’d be interested in putting out a record. That’s basically how that happened.
Released in 1990, "Impending Doom..." EP became your first official release. How did recording sessions go? The songs from your previous demo, did you change them anyhow before the recordings?
The label (Wild Rags) was supposed to have a recording budget for us but when the time came to record, we had to pay for it ourselves! The recording session went very quick because it was a relatively expensive studio in Hollywood and with our budget, we knew it had to be quick. They had the 2” reel to reel machine and a big mixing console, I think 36 tracks. Generally our mindset back then was, we’re a live band and you’re getting that in a recording. Looking back, before we recorded there we checked out the studio and met up with the owner. When it came time to record it was a different guy who worked with us and he didn’t really have much input, he didn’t know about this type of music and he just recorded us. Morbid Faith was actually the only song from the previous tape. As far as the difference, not that I can think of, I have not heard or compared those songs in a long time but if my memory is correct, the song got a little faster on the EP.
Who is that guy, Kisser, who did the artwork for you? Looks like it was his single work like that.
He was a friend of our [other] guitar player who was in the band for about a year (1989-90). Kisser would come around once in a while and from what I recall he was a graffiti artist. Truth is, we never hung out with him so I’m not 100% sure but he might have been inspired to draw something different because he was aware of Sadistic Intent. That drawing was a one of a kind drawing for him and although he gave it to our guitar player, it was not meant to be our cover artwork. Eventually when the time came that we needed artwork we used it! I remember Kisser looked like a gang member and two to three years later, he ended up getting shot and he died.
