Jeden z bardziej zasłużonych dla Japońskiej sceny zespołów SABBAT dla wielu jest odpowiednikiem Brytyjskiego VENOM

This was the first Sabbat album I was lucky to get my grubby little hands on and I thank the gods of metal every-time I listen to it. Sabbat are a Japanese band that began in 1983 under the name of Evil mostly covering NWoBHM bands, but was changed to Sabbat in 1984 when Gezol took on vocal duties and the band’s aim was more along the lines of Venom. Since then the band has had a whole plethora of releases that showcase a wide showcase of genres such as black, thrash, speed, and even avant-garde. I am not here to talk about those releases however, I am here to talk to you about their most recent LP, Sabbatrinty which focuses more on a blackened speed/thrash metal sound.

I have a strong fondness of Gezol’s vocal style. Whilst some may complain the broken engrish to get in the way of understanding the vocals, I say nay, after listening to the album a few times it is quite easy to penetrate the language difference and in fact it delivers a very entertaining sing-along. Even while typing this now I find myself chanting “Evil force, A bloody star of the red, The sign of dictator, root of ultimate evil!”which leads me to Gezol’s lyrics. Again with the language barrier it may not seem to be the most well written, but it is made up with honest and sheer brutal lyrics.

“Avengers riding on the storm, blessed by the dark lord
Mission from hell, command from hell, total destruction
Destroy ‘em all, the domain of gods, total destruction
Pleasure to kill, pleasure to ruin, extermination!"

Damiazell is a down right guitar demon! Every song is littered with riffs that make you air guitar whether you like it or not and has easily caused much a bewildered look from passers-by on the street. It seems to be the perfect combination of murky, raw speed metal riffs harking back to the days of Bulldozer and Venom, as well as the complex and intricate thrash metal shreds put through a black metal filter. All in all it creates a powerful and catchy experience that has clearly been produced by the mind of a guitar genius, who instead of focusing on meaningless virtuosity tries to compose something worth listening to. The drums on the other hand are a bit so-so, I’m sure that without them the album would fall flatter than a suicide jumper but I feel that they are out-shined by the aforementioned vocal and guitar duties. At the end of the day I can’t complain, they keep the album together and do little to really to sully this album.


Sabbatrinity is one of my all-time favorite albums, combining the best parts of black, thrash and speed metal into an excellent Japanese package. Speaking of which I am a sucker for plain colour background albums with a demon on the front, they just reek of 80′s Satanism and whiskey guzzling. I would recommend to anyone who calls themselves a true Heavy metal Hunter, for people who eat, breathe and live heavy fuckin’ metal!