SABBAT — Envenom (review)

SABBAT — Envenom album cover Album · 1991 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Wilytank
"Hey, Wilytank. If you liked 'The Dwelling' so much, what is your opinion on Sabbat's other albums? You know, the ones that aren't 'The Dwelling'?" That was a question asked by myself to myself. Granted, I do really like all of Sabbat's material, 'The Dwelling' sticks out for being an hour long song. But let's go back in time. In the 80's, Sabbat released a few demos (EPs?) showcasing their thrashy, oriental black metal. When the 90's came around, the only original member left was Gezol. Sabbat would then acquire Zorugelion, Temis Osmond, and Elizaveat; all big names in the band's history. When 1991 rolled around, Sabbat finally unleashed their first official full length, 'Envenom', onto the world.

'Envenom' still reflects upon their 80's sound, but the songs here are all new (save for "Black Fire" appearing on some versions of this album). Another nice change is that they cleaned up their production a good bit, which is good since demos like 'Born By Evil Blood' and 'Desecration' had some really deplorable production. Otherwise, they still have a comfortable amount of grittiness to black up their sound. The bass is still fairly audible, a typically noteworthy detail in Sabbat's more well known demo era songs such as "Black Fire".

One thing that is absent from 'Envenom' and I wish wasn't is a decent amount of cleaner vocals. Sabbat's clean vocal songs in their demos like "Black Fire" and "Mion's Hill" were really good. On 'Envenom', there's only Gezol singing clean on "Eviler" and Temis' higher pitched, semi-clean vocals over Gezol's growls on "Carcassvoice".

Musically, this album is very well crafted. There's super thrashy pieces like "Satan Bless You", "Eviler", and "Reek of Cremation"; punkier licks "Evil Nations" and "Carcassvoice"; the much slower "King of Hell"; and mid paced tunes "Devil Worship" and "Deathtemptation". "Deathtemptation" in particular gets my utmost praise. It's probably the best crafted song on this album. The lead guitar is very impressive; the song starts out with an awesome solo, and a double solo appears later after the second refrain. I also really like the oriental sounding guitar during the first parts of the refrains of the song.

Unfortunately, I cannot give 'Envenom' a top tier score. For all its excellent moments, the album just doesn't as hard of a kick as some of Sabbat's later albums. "King of Hell" is actually skippable. I also really wish the harsh vocal production was better; I could barely hear it most of them most of the time. There's still lots of fun to have with this album though; and for those just getting into Sabbat, this isn't a bad entry point.
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