When you think about the heavyweights of the local music scene, they don’t come much heavier than Sa-Da-Ko, and their debut album Zer01 is definitely a hard hitter. It doesn’t take long to notice a definite Slipknot influence, but as long as you draw the line between influence and imitation that’s no bad thing, and Sa-Da-Ko certainly have enough of their own style to pull it off. Not to mention some seriously talented musicians.

The album is well produced, successfully loading as much overdrive onto the guitars as possible without sacrificing all clarity of sound. Sadly the vocals haven’t fared quite so well: it’s not often you find a singer sounding better on stage than in the studio, and although the overall effect still works, the vocals might have been better left raw.

There’s definitely something satisfying about Sa-Da-Ko’s music, especially Red, a murderous anthem that never fails to get a pit going even in the smallest bar. With an opening lyric like “You never looked better than when you were lying in a gutter in a pool of blood,” you can either run screaming or go ahead and scream along, basking in the horror. At Rock On Promotions we think the latter is always the better option. Sticking with horror, Zer01 then descends into the twisted remnants of what might once have been a lullaby. Smother is a fitting follow-up to Red: if the aftermath of a brutal murder was ever expressed in sound, this is it.

Ju-On is another heavyweight with a catchy chorus, followed by Echo Relocation, which slows things down a touch to create a real sense of torment. Li features one of the most addictive riffs of the entire album, and Name Your God is a powerful closer. There really isn’t a bad song on the album, and if anything the biggest downside is that, at just over 30 minutes, it’s all over too soon.

- Roz Edwards