Sabbat

Sabbat

Sabbaticult

Nuclear War Now

***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.

Sabbat

Karmagmassacre

Nuclear War Now

***"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...

Sabbat

Satanasword

Nuclear War Now

***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.

Sabbat

Karisma

Nuclear War Now

***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.