Considering the roots of speed and thrash metal can be traced back to the UK with bands like Venom and Motörhead, it was the American and European acts that enjoyed the most success during the mid-late eighties. The Big Four were selling records by the bucketload, Germany had its very own “Teutonic Trio” (which would itself eventually expand to a foursome), and even Canada and South America were producing top-quality acts.
While England might have been the birthplace of heavy metal, this new thrash thing was proving a tricky beast to master with only former punk act Onslaught from Bristol gaining any overseas attention, most likely because of obvious similarities to Metallica and Slayer. Although a fairly healthy UK thrash scene definitely existed, its popularity was largely limited to within British shores. Many acts were seen as copyists while some displayed too much humour – a definite no-no in a scene that nearly saw the downfall of Anthrax because they had the audacity to wear colourful shorts and write silly B-Sides.
However, it was Nottingham act Sabbat that was to join Onslaught (and some might insist Xentrix) at the top of the UK thrash tree. While at least some of the success of their fellow countrymen lay in their American-influenced sound, Sabbat gained a dedicated domestic and European fan base by remaining fiercely English in their approach. Avoiding common, contemporary topics like politics and nuclear war, Sabbat were to delve into history books and paganism for inspiration.
Beginning life as Hydra in 1985, Sabbat went on to release three demo tapes (Magick In Theory And Practice, Fragments Of A Faith Forgotten, and Stranger Than Fiction) before appearing on Radio 1’s The Friday Rock Show, hosted by legendary DJ Tommy Vance. With everything falling into place, the debut album History Of A Time To Come (Noise Records) followed, gaining the band some serious attention.
Relying on technicality as well as speed, Sabbat’s first album stood out from the rest of the pack largely because of its unique lyricism and the vocal delivery of eccentric frontman Martin Walkyier. While thrash lyrics were generally short and snappy, Walkyier’s approach was more in line with Geoffrey Chaucer or John Milton. Each song a poem, beautifully crafted and often using clever wordplay, played off against some of the most savage riffs this country has ever produced thanks to guitarist (and now producer) Andy Sneap (Hell, Judas Priest).
Opener ‘A Cautionary Tale’ tells the story of Faust, ‘Horned is the Hunter’ is deeply rooted in pagan imagery, ‘For Those Who Died’ is about Witchfinders and witch trials, ‘Behind the Crooked Cross’ warns of the renewal of Nazism (beating Slayer to the same song title by a good six months) and ‘The Church Bizarre’ exposes the hypocrisy of religion. One of the finest debut albums from any thrash band from any country, History of a Time to Come is presented here in all its glory as part of the Mad Gods and Englishmen (Noise/BMG) box set.
Also included as part of the set is the band’s ambitious follow-up, Dreamweaver: Reflections Of Our Yesterdays (Noise). Having added ex-Holosade guitarist Simon Jones to their ranks, Sabbat chose Brian Bates‘s 1983 pagan-themed novel The Way of Wyrd, a weighty story about a monk charged by the church to convert Anglo-Saxon heathens to Christianity. From thunderous opener ‘The Clerical Conspiracy’ through the maritime-based introspection of ‘Advent of Insanity’ to the raging technical thrash of ‘Do Dark Horses Dream of Nightmares?’, ‘The Best of Enemies’ and the incendiary ‘Wildfire’, Dreamweaver… would prove a heavy concept indeed, and along with a laundry list of management, personnel, and financial issues, one which would eventually spell the band’s downfall, Walkyier leaving to form Skyclad in 1990.
Wisely ignoring Mourning Has Broken the band’s final, and painfully lacklustre, studio effort, the box set chooses instead to include 1990’s The End of the Beginning Berlin concert (in its entirety for the first time), the Friday Rock Show session from 1987, a lyric book entitled ‘From Bard to Verse’ and a double sided poster.
Aside from the band’s early demos and legendary White Dwarf single ‘Blood For the Blood God’ remaining frustratingly absent from any Sabbat reissues, this box set really is as good as it gets for vintage British thrash.
Buy the boxed set here:
GARY ALCOCK