SABBAT — Envenom (review)

SABBAT — Envenom album cover Album · 1991 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Envenom" is the debut full-length studio album by Japanese black/thrash metal act Sabbat. The album was released through Evil Records in March 1991. The original pressing was only for 500 CD copies (and some cassette tape copies), but the album has subsequently been reissued several times by different labels on both CD, vinyl and cassette tape.

The music on "Envenom" is old school raw thrash metal with a blackened edge. The latter style is mostly heard in the raspy raw vocals, because the rest of the music is thrash metal to the bone. There is the occasional use of more melodic higher pitched raw vocals, but the black metal rasp is the dominant vocal style on the album. It´s artists like Bathory and Hellhammer that come to mind, so it´s safe to say Sabbat aren´t out to invent the wheel on this release. What they do deliver is a very effective, raw, and well played thrash metal attack (with the occasional nod towards speed metal) with occult/satanic lyrics, which is abundantly clear from songtitles like "Satan Bless You", "Devil Worship", and "King of Hell". The tracks are simple, but catchy and memorable. It´s hard not to bang your head while screaming along to one of the anthemic choruses. Yes it´s that infectious...

The musicianship is generally strong but I´d like to mention the many well played guitar solos as one of the assets to the band´s sound. The raw organic sound production is another great asset which provide exactly the right environment for the music to shine. The 12 tracks, 50:34 minutes long album might be a couple of tracks too long for it´s own good, but other than that it is a very strong debut release by Sabbat and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
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