SADUS Bassist Comments On Upcoming Reissues

SADUS bassist Steve DiGiorgio has commented on the recent announcement by Displeased Records that they will be reissuing some of the band's early classics — "Illusions/Chemical Exposure" (1988),"Swallowed in Black" (1990) and "A Vision of Misery" (1992) — in a remastered form, featuring bonus material, lyrics and biography.

Said DiGiorgio: "As far as the reissues [are concerned], there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. But I'm not so guarded about it. The situation is that Roadrunner Records owns the rights to those three albums for 20 years after the deal starts for each album, so 2010, 2011, and 2012 respectively. Displeased Records paid whatever they were required, and will continue to pay out to Roadrunner in order to re-release all three. By Roadrunner owning the rights still, they are not doing anything outside of the contract we signed with them to do something like this. Displeased Records will make money off of the sales, sure. But they are obligated to pay Roadrunner a royalty rate, and after production costs, I don't think it's enough to agonize over.

"The way I see it, is that our music is getting more readily available to the old fucks and new young fucks that have been scanning, and overpaying on eBay to get it. All of this wouldn't be happening if we didn't stoke the embers and revitalize ourselves. The reissue demo CD, the Santiago DVD, the new album, the shows, the upcoming DVD, and now the reissued Roadrunner albums...all in the last two or three years. In the big picture, it's all brought SADUS back to life and got people talking about us again, wanting to book us more, and listening to our music again...maybe more than ever.

"Displeased is willing to take a risk of cost to sales on our modest trilogy of thrash albums that never made such a huge splash in the sea of metal. I view it as a compliment to our staying power that they would even pay attention to us. If they were only money-hungry, trust me, they would go after a band that would pose a better possiblilty to generate a substantial profit. Their intentions are good, and no blame should be put on them for our shitty deal that we signed with Roadrunner — or less modestly — the deal that Roadrunner knowingly tricked us and many bands into. In fact, props should be garnered to them for beating out our current employer, Mascot, for the rights and opportunity to re-release to what some call 'cult albums.' Be careful not to confuse ethusiasm with greed.

"If I haven't persuaded you yet, then I guess you can start some kind of Displeased boycott on some website or something. But legally, nothing is being waged against us. Money people potentially make off of us vs. fans that breathe life into our mostly stagnant band is a fair trade-off, in my mind."