***SABBAT are legends of underground metal. 2024 marks their 40th year of creating pure blacking heavy metal. As they enter their fifth decade, the Japanese horde has returned with their tenth full-length album Sabbaticult. It’s a rare feat for an extreme metal band to retain such relentless integrity for so many years, and rarer still for that intensity to grow with time. Yet Sabbaticult shows that GEZOL and his fellow maniacs GINOIR (guitars) and ZORUGELION (drums) have indeed outdone themselves. This record allows no respite from its opening blast to its epic coda, with eight tracks of Japanese blacking heavy metal thrash in the tradition of Venom, early Bathory, and Sodom. But rather than sticking to a formula, Sabbat employs a deft compositional aptitude that has deep roots in traditional heavy metal, with distinct movements and a tasteful melodicism that constantly reminds the listener that they are in the presence of the genuine article. Gezol’s tortured vocals howl in a manner truly unnerving, with Ginoir’s implacable guitar work recalling Mercyful Fate. Album closer “Kanashibari” provides a stunning epilogue, standing comfortably alongside classics like “Mion’s Hill” in the group’s canon. This is an essential release for fans of extreme underground metal NWN! Productions is proud to bring the Japanese language version (sung in Japanese) of this record to the west. This release comes a few months before SABBAT tours the USA and Latin America in October of 2024.
MC $9.75
07/19/2024
CD $12.00
07/19/2024
LP $27.35
08/16/2024
***"This is the tenth full-length release from Sabbat, the classic Japanese thrashing black metal band. Sabbat are one of those bands where every release is sterling. These guys’ shopping lists are probably more metal than 90% of everything else out there. When I make up my yearly best-of lists, they’re really more like 'the best of everything else that isn’t Sabbat', assuming that Sabbat put out a full-length album that year. Now that the requisite worshipful blather is out of the way, I can review Sabbat’s newest album. This one is a good deal better than Satanasword, which is surprising considering how great that one was. Sabbat’s songwriting is in full effect here. 'The Letter From Death' is my favorite Sabbat song since 'Den of Hades' from Karisma. The eerie, slow intro is just genius, and the concept, vocals, and music are all equally excellent. The other songs are nearly as good, too. 'The Answer Is Hell' is a ripping opener, and 'In League With Devils' has a catchy chorus and bass line that harks back to the early days of Sabbat. There are two versions of this album, each with different cover art, and one different song. I prefer the Iron Pegasus version, since I like 'Registry of Dark Side' a bit better than 'Plasmas Goat', but if you’re as rabid about Sabbat as I am, you’ll probably get both, anyway. There isn’t much more I can say about this one. If you have the money for just one...
2XLP $32.45
05/17/2024
***Nuclear War Now! is once again honored to release the next installment in its ongoing campaign to revive the essential catalog of Sabbat’s recordings for the North American legions of the band’s worshippers. As Sabbat’s seventh studio album, Satanasword is steeped in the inimitable tradition of its predecessors, as it projects the same blacking heavy metal infused with Japanese melodies that the band had developed over the course of its tenure, beginning over fifteen years prior to the album’s original release by Iron Pegasus Records in 2000. This NWN! reissue maintains its faithfulness to the band’s storied history by featuring the alternate artwork of Elizaveat, one of its core founding members, whose visual art continued to define Sabbat’s image long after his departure as a primary contributing musician. Presented first on CD format with an appropriate Japanese obi strip, to be followed in time by the definitive vinyl version, Satanasword serves as yet another testament to Sabbat’s enduring significance as a trailblazer of its own blacking metal path.
CD $11.00
11/04/2022
2XLP $35.85
08/25/2023
***Following the release of its fifth studio album, "The Dwelling," in 1996, Sabbat returned to a somewhat more conventional approach to songwriting with its 1999 follow-up, "Karisma." Whereas "The Dwelling" consisted of a single, hour-long track composed of several different movements in the band's signature style, "Karisma" reflected a more traditional structure, with six separate songs of Sabbatical "blacking metal." This more standard framework aside, "Karisma" is anything but your typical black metal album or a carbon copy of one of Sabbat's earlier works. On the contrary, "Karisma" is the product of the band's most significant foray to date into its own Japanese cultural roots. Not to be confused with its English-language counterpart ("Charisma"), "Karisma" is the first Sabbat album to feature lyrics in Japanese. Furthermore, the music itself contains elements that include traditional Japanese melodies, not unlike those of old "enka" songs. Thematically, the album journeys into Japanese religious myths and traditional occultism, presented through the lens of Sabbat’s uniquely-concocted black heavy metal. As it has done previously with its reissues of the first five Sabbat albums, Nuclear War Now! is proud to hereby present "Karisma" in all of its original glory.
CD $11.00
10/15/2021
2XLP $28.95
12/17/2021
MC $7.85
06/25/2021
***Nuclear War Now! proudly continues its well-established objective of reissing Sabbat’s impressive catalog of studio albums for the North American market with this release of “The Dwelling” on DLP format. Whereas each of the first four Sabbat full-lengths were released in consecutive years, almost two years passed in the interim between the releases of “Fetishism” in 1994 and “The Dwelling”in 1996. This additional time between releases is fully justified in the attention to detail paid in the composition of this masterpiece. As the band’s fifth album, “The Dwelling” represents the culmination of the band’s songwriting evolution in a single, hour-long track that journeys through every manifestation of its trademarked Japanese blacking metal. As with NWN’s previous Sabbat reissues, one can expect the best in terms of its audial and visual presentation. This version is complete with the original artwork by Juha Vuorma (see Beherit “Demonomancy” cover, etc.), and the music is recorded on three sides of a double LP, with a screen-printed Side D, as with previous Sabbat album reissues. Once again, the band and label have brilliantly conspired to bring new life to the classic recordings of one of the most celebrated black metal cults.
2XLP $28.75
03/19/2021
***NOW AVAILABLE ON CASSETTE!!! Following the 1993 release of its third album, Disembody, Japan’s SABBAT continued a trend it had established with its first three full-lengths by releasing its fourth album in four consecutive years in 1994. Fetishism largely followed in the same vein of thrashy first-wave black metal as its two immediate predecessors, Evoke and Disembody, which would not necessarily be unexpected given the continuing lineup of GEZOL (bass/lead vocals), TEMIS OSMOND (guitars/keyboards/backing vocals), and ZORUGELION (drums/backing vocals). As with all three previous albums, founding member and original guitarist ELIZAVEAT also maintained a presence by contributing his original artwork for the cover. This enduring continuity aside, Fetishism was anything but a carbon copy of the band’s previous efforts. The average song length increased by over a minute in comparison to Disembody, and more substantively, the compositions of certain songs were characterized by increased complexity. The six-minute instrumental track “Sausine” perhaps best exemplifies this trait, as its length, elaborate construction, and varied movements serve to foreshadow the culmination of this compositional development that was to follow on the single-track album, “The Dwelling,” approximately two years later.
2XLP $28.85
02/07/2020
MC $7.75
03/06/2020
***NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!!! By 1993, Sabbat had already been active under that name for eight years and previously for four more under other aliases. That year marked the release of the Japanese “Blacking Metal” cult’s third album, “Disembody,” which followed “Envenom” and “Evoke” from 1991 and 1992, respectively. This third full-length further solidified the status and chemistry of the three members first fully united on the preceding album, who would remain together for twelve more years, a span during which they would release five more full-lengths and countless other live, split and EP releases. Unlike much of the black metal world, which by 1993 had shifted its attention and tendencies to the sound that was emanating from the Norwegian scene, Sabbat remained true to the essence of first-wave black metal as established by its originators in Venom and others like Sodom. However, the trio of Gezol (bass/lead vocals), Temis Osmond (guitars/vocals), and Zorugelion (drums/vocals) continued to develop their own signature sound on “Disembody,” expanding on and enhancing the more unique approach they had started when Temis Osmond joined full-time, prior to recording “Evoke.” Thus “Disembody” sounds more developed and further refined than its predecessor, but still maintains some of the rawness in spirit that was more readily apparent on earlier recordings. Originally released on CD format on Gezol’s label, Evil Records, “Disembody” consisted of nine fully original tracks in addition to “Hungarian Death No. 5,” an instrumental adaptation of Johannes Brahms' “Hungarian Dance No. 5,” arranged and performed in...
CD $11.00
07/19/2019
2XLP $28.75
06/07/2019
***NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!!! A reissue of SABBAT's second album, Evoke, originally released in 1992. Although the similarities to earlier recordings are unmistakable, Evoke distinguished itself as a clearly new step in the band’s evolution. Most notably, founding member and original guitarist, Elizaveat, had decided to leave Sabbat permanently during the band’s recording hiatus of the late-1980s, though he returned for his swan song on Envenom. During this transitional period prior to the first album, Sabbat found its replacement for Elizaveat in Temis Osmond. Osmond officially assumed the full-time guitar duties vacated by Elizaveat, which is evident not only in his style of playing, but also in a shift in songwriting tendencies that is demonstrated on this second album. CD version includes an obi strip authentically designed by a member of the Japanese black/thrash band, Evil.
CD $11.00
07/19/2019
2XLP $28.75
05/03/2019
***The iconic debut album of “Sabbatical Blacking Metal” and the first in a series of definitive reissues of early Sabbat LPs, featuring a layout that remains as faithful as possible to the original version designed by Gezol and Evil Records. Pressed on 3 sides of a DLP rather than the standard single LP for optimal sound quality, with the 4th side featuring a screen-printed image of Elizaveat’s cover art. Includes A2 poster.
2XLP $28.75
05/03/2019