Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Sabbat, the UK’s finest thrash metal band, will be playing five minutes’ walk from my place tonight. I will be seeing them. It will be awesome. I am really excited. I will be being really annoying by repeatedly requesting ‘Blood for the Blood God’. Martin may well take the piss out of me again.

History of a Time to Come is brilliant, frantic, anthemic; with Sneap ripping out riff after riff after riff, all topped off by Martin’s crazed, barking, on-the-verge-of-aneurysm vocals.

Dreamweaver takes the template and ramps it up to eleven, Walkyier and Sneap goading each other on until the whole affair is teetering, arms pinwheeling, on the brink of sheer lunacy, and it works, mutating into that rarest of beasts – a full-on concept album that isn’t piss boring.

Even the much-maligned (to the point of being disowned by Sneap) Mourning Has Broken has a lot going for in terms of musicianship and that wonderfully bleak early-nineties atmosphere. Richie Desmond is a very, very different singer to Walkyier, but he plays to his strengths, and I think that it still works in a strange, operatic way.

Sing their praises here!

Dreamweaver>History of a Time....

I'd probably concur. 'Mythistory' is probably my favourite song of theirs, and 'The Clerical Conspiracy' is especially powerful too.

In purely objective terms History is better than Dreamweaver, but I can't help but love Dreamweaver more. It's a big, soggy, ridiculous mess - Sneap describes it as something like "Martin shouting poetry over five riffs at once", but that's precisely what I love about it. I saw "Return to the Sabbat" in Christmas 2008, and even though it was just Martin with a bunch of session musicians it was still awesome and put a huge grin on my face. They still didn't play Blood For The Blood God, though.

I AM KHORNE I AM DEATH
FEAR MY NAME MY ICEY BREATH
FEEL THE POWER, THE DEADLY CHILL
WHEN I SAY DIE THEN DIE YOU WILL

I likeAH the way Martin's lyricSAH helps you visualisAH pictureSAH.
Dreamweaver is great, totally ridiculous. Your description of it is spot on Shallowthing - it sounds like it's about to collapse under its ambition any second, but somehow it works.

I remember hearing Sabbat's 'Friday Rock Show Session' in about 1987 and (because I taped everything back then) playing it over and over. When I got the first album I was mildly disappointed, but still liked it quite a bit. I never bought Dreamweaver and only heard it about three years ago, I didn't really like it and the song titles were frankly a bit fucking silly, 'Do Dark Horses Dream of Night-mares'. Puleez!

Anyway, I did see them in Leicester in 1990 which was quite cool I suppose. Even though the support band was 'Ignorance' from Corby, in fact the singer used to work over the road. They were, well, a bit crap.

I have heard the last album once I think, didn't like it.

So yes History > Dreamweaver > The other one.

But Friday Rock Show Session > History.

Ha, now who's the elitist kvlt bastard!

Is History 'objectively' better than Dreamweaver? Dreamweaver songs were way more memorable and inspired and just seemed to advance every element of the comparatively tentative and orthodox debut to perfection. I thought the consensus had always been that Dreamweaver was best? Well I always thought so. But then, Dreamweaver was the first CD I ever bought (along with the CANCER debut), in the Our Price that's now an army surplus store opposite Southampton Bus Station, mid-1990.

Sabbat were one of the first proper heavy bands I got into after hearing "the classics" so they hold a special place in my heart alongside Slayer, Megadeth, Venom, Kreator etc.

I always preferred the debut, its one of those handful of albums like Bonded By Blood where you feel like the riffs could flay the skin from your flesh, and the sheer aggression of that album makes it one of the finest examples of what 'thrash metal' should be.

But Dreamweaver continues to grow even now. There is a weird sound and atmosphere to that album that is almost, not "pine scented", but of the soil, a dark weighty sound that ties in perfectly with the pagan subject matter, and sets it apart from US and German thrash. If you have ever read the The Way of Wyrd, it somehow manages to evoke the spirit of Bates story perfectly.

I remember how much I looked forward to hearing Mourning Has Broken when it came out (still have the cassette somewhere) but I was hugely disappointed, it just lacked the edge I wanted, and the songwriting just wasn't up to par. Certainly not the worst album by any means, and I can see how some people might like it, its just not for me.

Typo or losing track of time? The last ever Return to the Sabbat show was in Camden in 2003.
I was there and it was ace.

Fuck, yes, it was a typo. It was 2003, the Earache Christmas party in Nottingham. Deicide, Akercocke and Return to the Sabbat in a shitty little club.

Chris - Yes, it is objectively, obviously better, and if you don't agree you haven't listened to them in the right way. The things I don't like are just shit, though, no matter how many times you've heard them.

Parody = awesome

I was disappointed to discover that this was not a thread in praise of the awesome multiple live-album releasing Japanese thrashers of the same name.

Still, for what it's worth, Dreamweaver is the best offering by the UK version.

UK Sabbat > Japanese Sabbat. By a very long way indeed.

I've always preferred History... to Dreamweaver tbh.


Niiiice.

I went to the Xmass Fest a few days later with Deicide, Nile, Destruction, Akercocke, Graveworm, Dew Scented and Amon Amarth (before they became big).
No RTTS though.

I saw them backing up Cradle of filth a couple of years ago it was ok.thats all.

saw 'em at Wacken in 2007. always strange to equate Martin's vocals with his normal voice...

anyhow, great band, best UK thrash band ever, i'm still awaiting the Acid Reign reunion though...

They'd only been rehearsing for a month or two by that point (and Martin had a throat infection on the tour). Dani Filth bascially got Andy Sneap drunk and coerced him into getting the band back together.

I've always liked Dani.

good band. uneven though, i always thought, but definitely worthy.

co-sign Richie's equation too.

They're playing Blood for the Blood God on the only fucking tour I can't get to!!