note: misanthropaganda is so much more fun when you view it on your desktop or laptop. Your tablet is fine I guess, as is your phone, but for full enjoyment and understanding of the artist's (ha ha) vision, take my suggestion. It gives the posts a look that's a bit more reminiscent of an old 90's fanzine layout, which is the whole point of this bullshit blog...
I have long held a reverence for all things Japanese ever since I can remember. This is especially true of any heavy music that makes it to my waxy American ears all the way over from that magical little island nation which I will one day visit and have weird sex in. Sabbat is a credit to Japan's extreme music history, having been one of the early bands to pioneer what would go on to be known as Black Metal (or greatly influence it at the very least.) Long before the existence of an internet which facilitated the exchange of concepts and ideas beyond geographical borders, an international underground phenomenon was occurring amongst a handful of bands scattered across the globe in points like Canada, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan, connected only via snail mail (ah, the early tape trading days.) This movement is what we now in current day have labeled as the first wave of Black Metal. This was before blast-beats and corpse paint, it was before Mayhem and Darkthrone, before all of the arson and murder shenanigans that went on in Norway, it was before Appalachian and before Crazy Joe decided to take on a boss and start a war. (Reference!)
Throughout the years, Sabbat's sound has gone back and forth from Thrash-like, proto-Black Metal to a more traditional Heavy Metal sound (very much in the way that later on the likes of Darkthrone would experiment with.) Since this was before the Norwegian influence which gave way to a more stripped down sound devoid of virtuosic displays, Sabbat have never been shy to show proficiency with their instruments. Their songs pay mind to a basic verse-bridge-chorus-breakdown type of structure, in other words every song isn't like a blast-beat and feedback-fest for three minutes a pop. There are layers to their songwriting.
(Goddamnit I know that there has to be a more succinct way to phrase that last sentence!)
Since "Black Thrash", or blackened Thrash, actually went on to become a thing -another microgenre- well then, I present you to one of its undeniable forefathers. The question is, where to begin with these scantily clad minions of Satan. Sabbat's career has been insanely prolific and just picking a jump-off with which to familiarize yourself with them can be a daunting task. They've dropped nine proper studio joints. They have a series of about forty-nine live albums recorded from just about everywhere on Earth (okay maybe a couple are bootlegs). Now I'll mention their twenty-six EPs, and the fact that they have appeared on twenty-one splits! That's quite a repertoire tucked snuggly into the waistband of those leather speedos that they've donned for four decades (blech, the marriage of old leather and testicle sweat over the span of forty years... fucking gross!)
my personal Sabbat headstash
You could go with any of their proper full-lengths and you wouldn't go wrong; Sabbat always delivers the goods with no filler when they put together an album. However, I am going to recommend their debut LP Envenom. This is where I jumped off strictly based on the fact that it was their first album (with Sabbat I steered my venture into their work chronologically for lack of any other reference.) That being said, this is as raw as they get musically. downright primitive, and there are two numbers on here that rule extremely hard (in my opinion) and are noteworthy. I am referring to Sabbat's rite of benediction titled "Satan Bless You" and the brute, barbaric "King Of Hell".
First of all, how great is the title of the latter song mentioned. I have adopted the phrase "Satan Bless You" into my everyday life, just to fuck with the heads of the civilians that I'm forced to interact with daily for professional reasons. There is always that one asshole at the store or the gas station that has to slip in a "have a blessed day" as they hand you your change. I just place my hand over heart, humbly bow my head and reply "Satan bless you!" They just look back at me like if I just climbed out of a window at Bellevue! ( I am sooo adversarial!) The other joint, "King Of Hell" is a five-minute clubbing over the head via downtempo drums and a crude, five-chord riff that just oozes Linda Blair split-pea soup. This song is also more than likely where that big dummy from Gorgoroth got his 'infernal' stage name.
"King Of Hell" aside, Sabbat doesn't monkey around in down-pace for too long. These guys typically thrash out at full-speed-ahead with shred solos everywhere. I would say a roundabout comparison in sound would be like Morbid Visions-era Sepultura or even early Sodom but with not as many rough edges. Not that Sabbat is overly polished, but it certainly isn't "necro" sounding, or choppy and sloppy on the production like that Sepultura joint is, for example. Also, I'd say that Sabbat exhibits a bit better musicianship than Sepultura (at that point in their career) and/or Sodom. Just an opinion...
So give good ol' Gezol and the boys a listen if commercial Metal isn't your thing but yet you still feel a hankering for some cult, underground Metal. Sabbat is a highly enjoyable throwback, a hand in hand stroll with the ghost of Black Thrash past! Now go listen to "Devil Worship" off of this record and then commit bloody harakiri with your "Satanasword".
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