Sabbat: Discography (1988 - 1991)

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Sabbat: Discography (1988 - 1991)

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Sabbat were a thrash metal band from Nottingham, England, consisting of Martin Walkyier (vocals), Andy Sneap (guitars), Simon Jones (guitars), Gizz Butt (bass) and Simon Negus (drums). Over the years Sabbat have released three studio albums, four demos, two split singles/compilation albums, two singles and a live VHS. In 1988, the band released their debut album History of a Time to Come, which earned them further recognition. Their next album, Dreamweaver (Reflections of Our Yesterdays) (1989) was also critically acclaimed. Shortly after the release of Mourning Has Broken, tensions with the band began to surface, most of them revolved around money. This resulted in Sabbat breaking up. After an attempted reunion in 2001, which was blocked by Sneap, the original Sabbat lineup reunited in 2006, and in December of that year, performed together for the first time in sixteen years at four different venues in England. The band had continued to perform at many live venues and festivals around the world since then, but did not release any new material. Sneap confirmed in a January 2014 interview with Decibel magazine that Sabbat have once again split up.

~ wiki

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Sabbat: Discography (1988 - 1991)

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Sabbat: Discography (1988 - 1991)

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Though it had served as the birthplace of heavy metal back in the '70s, not to mention revitalized the genre via the New Wave of British Heavy Metal at the start of the '80s, England had watched its previously uncontested supremacy quickly slip away across the pond as the decade unfolded. Leading the charge were bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax (all of them diligent students of these historical developments in British rock), who, after absorbing all the lessons they could, transformed them into their own, beautifully vile perversion: thrash metal. So overwhelming was their advance that, closing on the end of the decade, British bands had yet to mount any kind of resistance, much less a counter-strike. Just when it seemed like all hope was lost, Sabbat arrived, ready to correct that discrepancy by releasing their seemingly prophetically titled first album, 1988's History of a Time to Come. A razor-sharp, incredibly powerful slice of pure thrashing intensity, the album also came packed with a few very original twists, not least of which had to be peculiar lead singer Martin Walkyier. Utterly obsessed with mysticism, witchcraft, and pagan legends, Walkyier's unusually original and idiosyncratic (some would say crackpot) lyrical interests served as the perfect foil for guitarist Andy Sneap's lightning-fast but relatively traditional thrash attack. Pagan odysseys like "Hosanna in Excelsis," "I for an Eye," the anti-witch-hunt rant "For Those Who Died," and the formidable, eight-minute masterpiece "Horned Is the Hunter" rank with the best British thrash ever produced. All of which makes this an essential purchase for serious fans of the genre.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, AMG

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Sabbat: Discography (1988 - 1991)

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Having instantly established themselves as a force to be reckoned among British-bred thrash bands, the members of Sabbat then set to work squandering their massive potential by trying to kill each other. With their creative relationship already heading south at alarming speed, the band's dual creative forces, vocalist Martin Walkyier and guitarist Andy Sneap, proceeded to butt heads throughout the recording process for Sabbat's second album, Dreamweavers, and it shows. As if to counteract Walkyier's increasingly unpredictable flights of lyrical fancy, thrash purist Sneap ensures that his riffing is even tighter and more precise (though no less inventive) than on the band's first album, but strangely, it also lacks some of the debut's bottom-end punch in the gut. The mood-setting intro, "The Beginning of the End," leads into first track proper, "The Clerical Conspiracy," and it's a corker, showing that Walkyier's utter contempt for organized religion continues to rage unabated. Also unchanged is his amazing verbosity, and he proceeds to spew mountains of rapid-fire ramblings about his favorite subjects (witchcraft, insanity, mythology, etc.). He also delves esoteric on the multi-faceted "Do Dark Horses Dream of Nightmares?," then leads the band through an eight-minute climax via the grandiose "The Best of Enemies (Wulf's Tale)." Also of interest, the delicately acoustic "Advent of Insanity" unveils his clean singing voice for the first time (and reveals the lisp which his death metal rasping usually managed to conceal, to boot) and the ultra-dense lyrical excursions of "Mythistory" preface the inevitable acoustic guitar outro piece. Ultimately, Dreamweavers isn't as strong throughout as its predecessor, but serious thrashers won't be disappointed.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, AMG

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Sabbat: Discography (1988 - 1991)

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Like many bands fortunate enough to be fronted by a uniquely charismatic vocalist – in this case, self-professed pagan (and certified cuckoo bird) Martin Walkyier – U.K. thrashers Sabbat faced almost insurmountable odds of survival after his departure following two critically acclaimed albums, still counted amongst the few ubiquitous classics of British thrash. And, sure enough, Sabbat briskly crashed and burned in dramatic fashion: disbanded by guitarist and chief songwriter Andy Sneap (yes, the future in-demand producer) after their reshuffled lineup's one and only show with new singer Ritchie Desmond at the helm. But, to be fair, Desmond's presence alone was hardly to blame for Mourning Has Broken's failure to convert disgruntled fans; he may have lacked his predecessor's inimitably idiosyncratic persona, but his vocal range was arguably broader, and his frequent forays into wince-inducing higher registers – though significantly dated today – were almost de rigueur at the time. Really, not even Sneap's decision to shift Sabbat's musical direction towards a slightly more melodic, sonically "clean" style (losing some familiar thrash savagery along the way) wasn't all that radical – just different – since lengthy new offerings like "The Demise of History" and "Theological Void" remained as adventurous and structurally complex as many of the songs that fans had raved over on those previous LPs. And even though much of the remaining material on Mourning ("Dumbstruck," "The Voice of Time") suffered from a certain sense of stylistic fatigue troubling the entire thrash genre in the early 1990s; the excellent "Paint the World Black" heralded a new level of mature and accessible thrash (reminiscent of Metal Church) that could have greatly broadened the band's audience if it had been given half a chance. But no, the album was widely condemned upon arrival by Walkyier loyalists nestled within the press and fan base (all of them unlikely to have given any replacement his fair shake), thereby feeding Sneap's insecurity and ensuring Sabbat's swift demise. Tellingly, Mourning Has Broken was denied a remastered reissue alongside Sabbat's earlier albums and seems almost to have been disowned by the group on the occasion of their reunion for a few shows, some 15 years later.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, AMG