Sabbat: Evoke (1992)

Here we have the third out of three posts in a series about the first three albums by Japan's Sabbat, not to be confused with the U.K. Sabbat.  In a bizarre accident, I ended up reviewing these in a seemingly random order.  Well, I guess there was some semblance of an order, because if I had to rank them in order of favorite to least favorite, it would be Disembody, Envenom, then Evoke.

When I was first listening to this album in anticipation of writing a post about it, I felt that this album was decidedly weaker than the other two.  It was not that the songs were bad, it was just that they were a little too safe.  That may not have been the case at the time, but there are a lot of bands who play this general style of metal anymore.  The songs were fine, but just not particularly attention-grabbing.

And then the second half started.  Several songs grabbed my attention.  "Hellhouse (Kanashibari Pt. 3)" is the most dynamic song on the album.  The song builds up an impressive eerie atmosphere and features some spine-tingling clean vocals.  "The Curse of Phraoh" is obviously hilariously misspelled but the Egyptian-sounding riff definitely grabs the listener.  It does start out sounding like a cover of Iron Maiden's "Powerslave", but veers off quickly.  Finally, "Beyond the River" is absolutely terrific, with the best riff on the album and some infectious hooks.

This one is a little uneven, but still a good enough album.  I do not like it as much as the other two, even though "Beyond the River" is possibly one of my favorite songs I have heard from Sabbat yet.  It is still a great example of blackened thrash done right, it just fails to live up to some of the other work from Sabbat.

Sabbat: Envenom (1991)

This is the second in a series covering the reissues of the first three Sabbat albums.  I know, I am covering them in a weird and random order.  Yesterday, I covered the third album.  This one is their first full-length.

It is kind of hard to make any kind of argument about the band's growth when you are going backwards from the third album to the first.  Much of the music on this release is less-polished and raw.  In the review yesterday, I mentioned that they sounded like a grimier version of Venom.  The Venom comparison is even more apt here, particularly on songs like "Evil Nations" which would have fit in very well on Cronos and gang's album At War with Satan.  "Deathtemptation (Kanashibari Pt. 2)" is one of the strongest songs on the album, with a terrific riff and some of the best vocals on the entire release.  The noodling in the background of the choruses is particularly effective.  The entire song has an evil atmosphere to it, complemented by the gruff raspy vocals.

"Carcassvoice" is a really weird song.  It has a heavy punk vibe to it and features some bizarre double vocals.  One singer provides some lower-pitched growling snarls while the other pitches in with some much higher-register shrieking.  The two styles do not mix well at all and the song is kind of annoying during those parts.  It does get better as it goes on though, ditching those vocals for more of a surf-rock style groove.  The vocals are also the downfall of "Eviler", which is just a hilarious song title, but features more punkish shouting that just does not work well.  But these issues are just minor annoyances in an otherwise great album.

Sabbat released a damn impressive debut album that was just a sign of things to come for the band.  It is raw and intense, but the band never really moved away from this general sound.  They just continued to improve on it. 

Sabbat: Disembody (1993)

A few weeks back, I did a short series covering a bunch of the demo and EP reissues from the Japanese blackened thrash metal band Sabbat.  Well, several of their early full-lengths were also released.  I picked up three of those.

Disembody is Sabbat's third full-length album and finds the band in full force.  Much of the music finds Sabbat playing their grimier, more evil take on Venom (which is not exactly easy to pull off).  Most songs feature a barrage of riffs from the virtuoso guitarist Gezol.  His work toward the end of "Evoke the Evil" in particular is extremely impressive and dynamic, building up an evil atmosphere in the climax of the song.  Gezol's work here is reminiscent of early Mercyful Fate in that respect. 

There are a number of terrific songs on this album, but there are a couple that have really grabbed my attention.  "Metamorphosis" is one of the more interesting songs on the album.  It starts off slowly with some frantic and panicked clean vocals, leading into a breakdown and some crushing riffs before circling back to the agonized vocals.  The song is maddeningly intense.  "Satan's Serenade" is the other.  This song was not on the original version of the album, but does appear on my reissue.  It is driven by a classic heavy metal riff that is reminiscent of the NWOBHM. 

I have considered myself a fan of Sabbat since first hearing them, but have never really come close to listening to everything the band has released.  That is still true, but I have been able to get into their earlier material with this set of reissues.  The band has been prolific to say the least.  And now I am basically starting from the beginning.

Sabbat: The Devil's Sperm is Cold (1989)

And we come to the final post in this series of reissued early Sabbat EPs.  This one came the year before yesterday's subject and features one of the other characteristics of Sabbat that has been present in a lot of their material.  And that is their somewhat bizarre sense of humor.  Seriously, why would else would they use that title?

This is the EP that saw the band take a massive step forward in their musicality, which can be seen on yesterday's post.  They were no longer taking the simple thrash metal route, injecting a number of creative ideas and stretching the length of their songs to pull it off.  There are only two songs on this EP and they both break the six-minute mark. 

"Hellfire" is the more straight-forward of the two tracks, with riffs that would not sound out of place on a pre-Master of Puppets Metallica album.  "Immortality of the Soul" is the highlight here with some amazing shredding riffs and chilling solos.  It is a huge step forward from the band in a musical sense and showcases how talented these musicians really are.  It takes a number of twists and turns, and is one of the more memorable songs from this era in the band's history.

This is probably the best of Sabbat's early EPs before they started releasing full-length albums.  With the tape-trading culture at the time, it is somewhat surprising this band was not better-known.  This is an essential Sabbat release.

Sabbat: The Seven Deadly Sins (1990)

This is the third in a series of four posts covering Sabbat's early EPs that were recently reissued.  This is the last one before the band finally released a full-length album and is the most complete-sounding one I have covered. 

This one opens up with the six-minute "Possessed the Room (Kanashibari)" which features a blazing guitar solo in the opening strains, before launching into a mid-paced thrash metal riff.  It is an incredible song, and easily one of the band's best songs during this time period before the release of their first full-length.  There are a number of solos shining through and some neck-breaking galloping riffs.  It builds a dark and evil-sounding atmosphere through its lack of speed and the use of ominous guitar melodies.  The other two songs are much faster, more typical thrash metal songs. 

Unlike the last two EPs, this one I do recommend for people looking into the band.  It is a nice, short introduction to what the band was doing without getting into an entire full-length.  "Possessed the Room (Kanashibari)" is an incredible song and possibly one of their best ever.  The others are much more standard, but still sound good.  This is a decent starting point to see what Sabbat is all about.

Sabbat: Born by Evil Blood (1987)

This is the second of four days exploring some of the very early Sabbat demos.  Again, this is the Japanese band.  This is actually the band's first released EP, coming out only after a single and a split.  So this one is even earlier in the band's discography than the one in yesterday's post.

This is a very raw recording, but the guitars have an impressively evil tone to them.  There are just three songs on this particular EP, and the first one is an instrumental.  The band's Venom influence is very clear, as any of these songs would fit in well on Venom's Black Metal.  "Curdle the Blood" is probably the highlight, with its frenetic riffing and Gesol's shrieking vocals.  It also has some damn meaty riffs in it.  "Poison Child" is basically a standard thrash metal track, but the vocals definitely take some getting used to here, which is unfortunate because it detracts from some impressive musical ideas.

Again, I cannot really recommend this release for anyone but a huge fan of the band.  I am becoming such a fan though, so I do enjoy it.

Sabbat: Desecration (1988)

The next four posts will cover some very early Sabbat demos.  This is the Sabbat from Japan, not the U.K.  Sabbat has generally been a very prolific band and a lot of their early material has recently been reissued.  I first picked up four of the demos, but later added three of the early albums as well.  This string is just the demos.  None of these posts is going to be terribly long, because none of the releases are very long.

This was just the fourth release Sabbat put out and is a quick and dirty four-song EP.  It starts out ominously with the song "Welcome to Sabbat", which is actually a nice way to introduce the band in general.  It lays the groundwork for what is to come, which is some damn impressive blackened thrash metal that owes its existence to Mercyful Fate and Venom.  This particular release veers much closer to thrash metal in the faster-paced riffs and howling vocals, but it is easy to see where the style was heading in the blackened thrash direction.  The best song here is probably "Crest of Satan", which is the longest and features some great riffs that belie the fact that this band is so young at this point.  "Darkness and Evil" is the closest the album comes to a defined black metal song.

It is obvious Sabbat was still finding themselves here, but this is a damn impressive release for something so early in their vast catalog.  I do not know if I recommend it to people discovering the band for the first time, but it is interesting nonetheless.

One and Done? Pt. 15: Transgressor

I could easily echo most of the same statements that I made in the first paragraph of the Nuctemeron post two days ago.  Transgressor is a very obscure death metal band from Japan whose only full-length release came in 1992.  What I picked up is not the original release of the album, rather it is a reissue from Hexed Cemetary from 2015. 

Japan, for whatever reason, is not a country that produces a lot of death metal.  There is quite a bit of black metal (Abigail), including some avant-garde stuff (Sigh), a lot of thrash metal (Sabbat, King's-Evil), even doom metal (Coffins).  And then there is the traditional metal (Loudness) and the visual kei/traditional metal weirdness that could only come from Japan (X-Japan).  But not much death metal, at least not much traditional death metal, there are slam bands.  So it was kind of interesting to find such a strong death metal release from a band who apparently just did not keep going.

Transgressor's sound is murky and weird.  There are a lot of well-crafted, progressive structures and a very strong doom metal influence.  The band does a terrific job of creating an eerie, creepy atmosphere through the use of dissonant chords, seemingly out-of-tune guitars and slowly creeping riffs, but then suddenly lurches into a fast-paced death metal riff.  Think a doomier combination of Death and Autopsy. 

There are some damn impressive songs here and this should have been a cult death metal classic.  It really is that damn good.  Unfortunately it is an album largely forgotten to time. And a big part of that reason is the fact that Transgressor only released the one.

Abigail: Intercourse & Lust (1996)

I have been exploring the Japanese metal scene little by little over the last couple of years.  I have long been familiar with groups like Sabbat, Coffins, Gallhammer and Sigh.  Lately though I have been furthering my exploration of the scene, focusing on the early works of the aforementioned Sabbat and Sigh, but also checking out Loudness and X Japan.  I have also checked out this album, the debut release from Abigail, a band that rivals Sabbat for productivity.

Abigail considers themselves the most evil band in Japan, and their music definitely lives up to that billing.  The band is likely named after the first solo King Diamond album and takes their influence from Mercyful Fate, Motörhead, Venom, Bathory and the early German thrash metal bands.  The music is fast and aggressive, filthy and raw.  Despite this, the songs actually vary widely in sound.  Opening track "A Witch Named Aspilcuetta" is a blazing fast bulldozer of a song.  Later songs take the Motörhead influence and run wild with it, actually managing to sound like the band with blast beats and shrieking vocals.

The most interesting song on the album is "Hail Yakuza".  The song is the most dynamic on the album, consisting of several movements, including some slower spots.  In addition, the music is complemented by several sound clips from what I will assume are Japanese movies.  I really have no idea as I do not speak Japanese. 

This album is terrific.  I highly recommend it for fans of black/thrash/speed metal in the vein of the early pioneers of the black metal scene.  There are a lot of terrific metal bands from Japan, and Abigail is definitely near the top of the list.  I definitely need to check out more of their stuff.

Vomit Remants: Supreme Entity (1999)

Well, once again I mistakenly purchased a Vomit Remnants album that was subsumed in the compilation that I picked up years ago.  This is the band's first full-length release and finds the band fully-formed as a paint-by-the-numbers slam death.  That is not to say that this is bad, far from it, as the band is one that was instrumental in making me a fan of the genre.

This release by Vomit Remnants is absolutely sick and disgusting slam, punctuated by brutal riffs and guttural vocals.  The drum sound is terrible, sounding like pounding on a trash can, but that is just part of the charm.  There are a number of absolutely ridiculous samples preceding some of the songs, including what sounds like an advertisement for weed-growing tips.  I am not sure where these samples come from, but they are hilariously weird. 

Just like the last release I picked up from Vomit Remnants, this one features a number of live tracks added on at the end.  They are significantly better this time around, helped out by much better sound quality, but they still seem very unnecessary.

Vomit Remnants was an important band in getting me into slam death metal.  This album is a good example of why that is, checking all the major requirements of a slam album.  Hopefully next time I grab a release by Vomit Remnants, it will be one I have not heard before.

Vomit Remnants: Indefensible Vehemence (2001)

It's been awhile since I did a slam release, so here is Japan's Vomit Remnants.  This is a band I am fairly familiar with, although I did not quite realize just how familiar with this particular release I was.  I have a CD compilation from Vomit Remnants as part of one of my early sojourns into the genre.  That compilation collected this EP along with another release and a couple of covers.  So I have actually heard everything here before.  No matter, I enjoy it quite a bit.

After a brief, almost electronic intro, the band breaks into "Prodigy of Solitude", which is a pretty good indication of the kind of stuff to expect from the band going forward.  Ruthlessly brutal with pounding riffs and crashing drums, Vomit Remnants is one of the best bands out of Japan's surprisingly great slam scene.  They are generally more dynamic than a lot of other slam bands with a high-energy approach that is somewhat unusual for the genre.  They also vary speeds quite often beyond the typical band of the style.  Of course there are the breakdown (or slam) parts that Vomit Remnants does quite well, but by and large this is not quite your run-of-the-mill slam band.

The only real issue I have with this release is the live tracks thrown in at the end.  The production values of those tracks is just ridiculously awful.  The drums can be heard, but very little else.  They are also kind of superfluous and were not on the original release.

I remain a fan of slam death metal, though finding good bands these days is not easy.  Vomit Remnants was one of the first slam bands I discovered and they remain one of my favorites.  This EP is a good example of why.

FMA: Coffins: The Fleshland (2013)

Originally reviewed here.

Coffins is what you would get if you played Hellhammer at half speed on your record player. Seriously. The Japanese death/doom trio plays a slow, sludgy, dirgey style of metal that sounds like the soundtrack to the darkest, most disgusting zombie movie imaginable. Coffins is one of the most prolific bands going and releases multiple recordings every year. It has to be exhausting to have to write and record new music this often, but it does not seem to bother Coffins much. Each new album sounds fresh, in a rotted, exhumed corpse sort of way.

This is actually only Coffins' fourth full-length album since their formation in 1996. They typically release their material in the form of EPs and splits. This is also the band's first full-length on a label with a wider audience as Relapse has picked up the band for this release. Whether this results in the band becoming more well-known remains to be seen.

Coffins presents their typical album here. Their songs tend to alternate between the slow deathy dirges with a ton of distortion and a tense atmosphere to songs with more of a galloping, faster-paced crunch. The one constant is the decayed, rumbling croak of band mainstay Uchino. The best songs are typically the ones that combine the groove-driven, faster sections with the disturbingly creepy atmosphere present in the slower tracks. "No Saviour" stands out as one such track. Then there is "Dishuman", which is the fastest track I have yet heard from Coffins, and comes perilously close To Mega Therion-paced Celtic Frost early in the track before descending into the murky sludgy pace the band typically uses.

This is one of the tighter recordings that I have yet heard from Coffins. Oftentimes the band tends to drift a little with the slower tracks into an almost hypnotic, trance-inducing sound and long drawn-out sections. Those are largely absent on this release. Instead each song flows about as well as this type of metal is capable of. The band has a better grasp on what they want to achieve this time around and are able to do so effectively. That makes this a much more enjoyable overall listen than albums past.

I have been a fan of Coffins for quite a long time, but this is undoubtedly one of the best albums I have heard from the band. Coffins has ceased to be a band in search of an identity. They have embraced their Hellhammer-laced-with-valium style and tightened up their sound.

FMA Reviews: Fastkill: Bestial Thrashing Bulldozer

Originally reviewed here.

I have seen a lot of complaints that all of the thrash metal released today is just bands copying what has been done by the big-name bands of the 1980's, in particular the Big Four. This is simply not true. Obviously there is the wave of bands from the United States and England that are trying to recapture past glories of the Bay Area scene. Of course there were other scenes in the 1980's, scenes that have been largely ignored by newer thrash metal bands, for some unknown reason. 

Enter Japan's Fastkill, a band clearly influenced by the much more chaotic, and yes, bestial, thrash metal bands of the 1980's. We are talking clear Slayer, Destruction, and Kreator worship here. Japan has produced a few bands like this, with King's-Evil being another name.

The cover art leaves no doubts that the music contained therein is going to be fast, intense, and destructive as all hell. And Fastkill definitely delivers on those promises. With rapid-fire riffing, jackhammer-drumming, and the banshee-like shrieks of frontman Toshio Komori, this is a total maelstrom of pure, unadulterated thrash metal. The speed and intensity of the riffing is reminiscent of the early records of the aforementioned Slayer and the Teutonic thrash wave. The songs are all short and lightning-fast with the longest track being just under four minutes and nothing else coming close. The brevity of the songs and the take-no-prisoners, constant and fast riffing leaves the listener gasping for breath, their head reeling from the sonic assault. It's a good thing, really.

The first couple of times I listened to this, I really did not care for the vocals. They are high-pitched and often resemble the whooping of birds the way they emerge out of the music. Komori does do the high-pitched Araya-esque blood-curdling scream well. After a couple of listens, I got used to his voice and it does not bother me nearly as much as it did early on.

This is a punishing and brutal thrash attack. An impressive tribute to the much more chaotic sounds of early thrash metal away from the Bay Area.

FMA Reviews: Nunslaughter/Abigail: Fucking Satan

Originally reviewed here.

Japan's Abigail and Ohio's Nunslaughter share some things in common, not the least of which is their prolific output of recordings. It was only a matter of time before these two bands, who each manage to put out a dozen new releases every year, paired up. Well here we have it, with the none-too-subtle title Fucking Satan. I am sure we are in for a hell of a ride with this one (pun not intended, but definitely appropriate).

Nunslaughter kicks things off and we are immediately treated to their style of punk-inflected death metal insanity. The first track is actually one of the longer ones Nunslaughter has done, a much more complete song than the usual one quick riff with some Satanic lyrics and done. It actually goes on for a couple of minutes and is one of the better Nunslaughter songs I have heard. The second track is much more typical Nunslaughter and lasts about 30 seconds.

I was not familiar with Abigail before this split but I can see why they would work well on a split with Nunslaughter. The blackened thrash metal maniacs have quite a bit of punk influence as well, as can be discerned from their second track. Their music bears a resemblance to fellow blackened countrymen Sabbat. It is closer to first wave black metal where thrash riffs could still be identified in the music. The vocals are mostly blackened shrieking.

I like splits because of the chance to hear a couple of bands vying for attention. I definitely came away more impressed with the Nunslaughter side here, but Abigail caught my attention.

This is a very short, but filthy and raw split with both bands doing their best to make eardrums bleed. They both succeed.

My Favorite Metal Band from Japan

There are not a lot of bands from Japan that I am aware of. Obviously there is the avant garde metal band Sigh, crust/doom metal band Gallhammer, and blackened thrash metal band Sabbat, but as much as I like those bands, they are not quite as impressive as Coffins. The death/doom band sounds a bit like Hellhammer/Celtic Frost played as slowly as possible. They have massively heavy riffs and deep guttural vocals. They do kick things up a notch on occasion though and the similarities to the Swiss group become even more apparent. Coffins is a great, underrated band.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Gallhammer
King's-Evil
Sabbat
Sigh
Vomit Remnants