Sabbat: Evoke (1992)

Here we have the third out of three posts in a series about the first three albums by Japan's Sabbat, not to be confused with the U.K. Sabbat.  In a bizarre accident, I ended up reviewing these in a seemingly random order.  Well, I guess there was some semblance of an order, because if I had to rank them in order of favorite to least favorite, it would be Disembody, Envenom, then Evoke.

When I was first listening to this album in anticipation of writing a post about it, I felt that this album was decidedly weaker than the other two.  It was not that the songs were bad, it was just that they were a little too safe.  That may not have been the case at the time, but there are a lot of bands who play this general style of metal anymore.  The songs were fine, but just not particularly attention-grabbing.

And then the second half started.  Several songs grabbed my attention.  "Hellhouse (Kanashibari Pt. 3)" is the most dynamic song on the album.  The song builds up an impressive eerie atmosphere and features some spine-tingling clean vocals.  "The Curse of Phraoh" is obviously hilariously misspelled but the Egyptian-sounding riff definitely grabs the listener.  It does start out sounding like a cover of Iron Maiden's "Powerslave", but veers off quickly.  Finally, "Beyond the River" is absolutely terrific, with the best riff on the album and some infectious hooks.

This one is a little uneven, but still a good enough album.  I do not like it as much as the other two, even though "Beyond the River" is possibly one of my favorite songs I have heard from Sabbat yet.  It is still a great example of blackened thrash done right, it just fails to live up to some of the other work from Sabbat.

Sabbat: Envenom (1991)

This is the second in a series covering the reissues of the first three Sabbat albums.  I know, I am covering them in a weird and random order.  Yesterday, I covered the third album.  This one is their first full-length.

It is kind of hard to make any kind of argument about the band's growth when you are going backwards from the third album to the first.  Much of the music on this release is less-polished and raw.  In the review yesterday, I mentioned that they sounded like a grimier version of Venom.  The Venom comparison is even more apt here, particularly on songs like "Evil Nations" which would have fit in very well on Cronos and gang's album At War with Satan.  "Deathtemptation (Kanashibari Pt. 2)" is one of the strongest songs on the album, with a terrific riff and some of the best vocals on the entire release.  The noodling in the background of the choruses is particularly effective.  The entire song has an evil atmosphere to it, complemented by the gruff raspy vocals.

"Carcassvoice" is a really weird song.  It has a heavy punk vibe to it and features some bizarre double vocals.  One singer provides some lower-pitched growling snarls while the other pitches in with some much higher-register shrieking.  The two styles do not mix well at all and the song is kind of annoying during those parts.  It does get better as it goes on though, ditching those vocals for more of a surf-rock style groove.  The vocals are also the downfall of "Eviler", which is just a hilarious song title, but features more punkish shouting that just does not work well.  But these issues are just minor annoyances in an otherwise great album.

Sabbat released a damn impressive debut album that was just a sign of things to come for the band.  It is raw and intense, but the band never really moved away from this general sound.  They just continued to improve on it. 

Sabbat: Disembody (1993)

A few weeks back, I did a short series covering a bunch of the demo and EP reissues from the Japanese blackened thrash metal band Sabbat.  Well, several of their early full-lengths were also released.  I picked up three of those.

Disembody is Sabbat's third full-length album and finds the band in full force.  Much of the music finds Sabbat playing their grimier, more evil take on Venom (which is not exactly easy to pull off).  Most songs feature a barrage of riffs from the virtuoso guitarist Gezol.  His work toward the end of "Evoke the Evil" in particular is extremely impressive and dynamic, building up an evil atmosphere in the climax of the song.  Gezol's work here is reminiscent of early Mercyful Fate in that respect. 

There are a number of terrific songs on this album, but there are a couple that have really grabbed my attention.  "Metamorphosis" is one of the more interesting songs on the album.  It starts off slowly with some frantic and panicked clean vocals, leading into a breakdown and some crushing riffs before circling back to the agonized vocals.  The song is maddeningly intense.  "Satan's Serenade" is the other.  This song was not on the original version of the album, but does appear on my reissue.  It is driven by a classic heavy metal riff that is reminiscent of the NWOBHM. 

I have considered myself a fan of Sabbat since first hearing them, but have never really come close to listening to everything the band has released.  That is still true, but I have been able to get into their earlier material with this set of reissues.  The band has been prolific to say the least.  And now I am basically starting from the beginning.

Sabbat: The Devil's Sperm is Cold (1989)

And we come to the final post in this series of reissued early Sabbat EPs.  This one came the year before yesterday's subject and features one of the other characteristics of Sabbat that has been present in a lot of their material.  And that is their somewhat bizarre sense of humor.  Seriously, why would else would they use that title?

This is the EP that saw the band take a massive step forward in their musicality, which can be seen on yesterday's post.  They were no longer taking the simple thrash metal route, injecting a number of creative ideas and stretching the length of their songs to pull it off.  There are only two songs on this EP and they both break the six-minute mark. 

"Hellfire" is the more straight-forward of the two tracks, with riffs that would not sound out of place on a pre-Master of Puppets Metallica album.  "Immortality of the Soul" is the highlight here with some amazing shredding riffs and chilling solos.  It is a huge step forward from the band in a musical sense and showcases how talented these musicians really are.  It takes a number of twists and turns, and is one of the more memorable songs from this era in the band's history.

This is probably the best of Sabbat's early EPs before they started releasing full-length albums.  With the tape-trading culture at the time, it is somewhat surprising this band was not better-known.  This is an essential Sabbat release.

Sabbat: The Seven Deadly Sins (1990)

This is the third in a series of four posts covering Sabbat's early EPs that were recently reissued.  This is the last one before the band finally released a full-length album and is the most complete-sounding one I have covered. 

This one opens up with the six-minute "Possessed the Room (Kanashibari)" which features a blazing guitar solo in the opening strains, before launching into a mid-paced thrash metal riff.  It is an incredible song, and easily one of the band's best songs during this time period before the release of their first full-length.  There are a number of solos shining through and some neck-breaking galloping riffs.  It builds a dark and evil-sounding atmosphere through its lack of speed and the use of ominous guitar melodies.  The other two songs are much faster, more typical thrash metal songs. 

Unlike the last two EPs, this one I do recommend for people looking into the band.  It is a nice, short introduction to what the band was doing without getting into an entire full-length.  "Possessed the Room (Kanashibari)" is an incredible song and possibly one of their best ever.  The others are much more standard, but still sound good.  This is a decent starting point to see what Sabbat is all about.

Sabbat: Born by Evil Blood (1987)

This is the second of four days exploring some of the very early Sabbat demos.  Again, this is the Japanese band.  This is actually the band's first released EP, coming out only after a single and a split.  So this one is even earlier in the band's discography than the one in yesterday's post.

This is a very raw recording, but the guitars have an impressively evil tone to them.  There are just three songs on this particular EP, and the first one is an instrumental.  The band's Venom influence is very clear, as any of these songs would fit in well on Venom's Black Metal.  "Curdle the Blood" is probably the highlight, with its frenetic riffing and Gesol's shrieking vocals.  It also has some damn meaty riffs in it.  "Poison Child" is basically a standard thrash metal track, but the vocals definitely take some getting used to here, which is unfortunate because it detracts from some impressive musical ideas.

Again, I cannot really recommend this release for anyone but a huge fan of the band.  I am becoming such a fan though, so I do enjoy it.

Sabbat: Desecration (1988)

The next four posts will cover some very early Sabbat demos.  This is the Sabbat from Japan, not the U.K.  Sabbat has generally been a very prolific band and a lot of their early material has recently been reissued.  I first picked up four of the demos, but later added three of the early albums as well.  This string is just the demos.  None of these posts is going to be terribly long, because none of the releases are very long.

This was just the fourth release Sabbat put out and is a quick and dirty four-song EP.  It starts out ominously with the song "Welcome to Sabbat", which is actually a nice way to introduce the band in general.  It lays the groundwork for what is to come, which is some damn impressive blackened thrash metal that owes its existence to Mercyful Fate and Venom.  This particular release veers much closer to thrash metal in the faster-paced riffs and howling vocals, but it is easy to see where the style was heading in the blackened thrash direction.  The best song here is probably "Crest of Satan", which is the longest and features some great riffs that belie the fact that this band is so young at this point.  "Darkness and Evil" is the closest the album comes to a defined black metal song.

It is obvious Sabbat was still finding themselves here, but this is a damn impressive release for something so early in their vast catalog.  I do not know if I recommend it to people discovering the band for the first time, but it is interesting nonetheless.