With Karisma, Sabbat attained the peak of their sabbatical sound; everything was sung in Japanese and many of the leads had that oriental sound and were single string bending - or not. Since then, they kind of slacked some oriental elements in their sound and brought more thrashiness back with a vengeance. Enough, that both Satanasword and the subsequent Karmagmassacre are nothing else than original and fresh thrash metal. Gone are most of the black metal, and any other small influences. The latter, while being again less oriental, brings back some more occultism in their sound. It could almost be considered as some progressive return to roots, but with all the musicianship and maturity they got from making their earlier albums.
Satanasword didn't get that much thrashier than Karisma, it does have a lot less make-up too. I may make it sound like some kind of regression, falling back to a comfort zone, but this is definitely Sabbat and in shape as they ever been. It's not one of my favourite Sabbat albums, though it is a really powerful one and has a couple of tracks of a little superior quality. Temis wouldn't let down his extensive lead or rhythms guitar moments, and they are highlights as usual. The songs where he is more liberal are the best, though it can't be only attributed to this. That may means the song structure allows it, that it doesn't feel disjointed. These songs feel more epic than the others and particularly for "Necromantik", it sounds epic. "Charisma" starts with a long intro that changes pace, leading to the catchy and memorable core of the song.
"God's blender and masturbation, Wonderful massacre with sin and punishment
Satan's blasphemous mean wisdom, Possessed mortal, And this evil, It's charisma Charismaaa"
And while the following songs are really great by the band's standards, they are not only overshadowed by their many better songs, but by the aforementioned one and the last three tracks. "Dracula" is longer and ends up being more memorable with Gezol and Temis singing different lines at the same time, and having of course more extensive instrumentation. It prepares in a great way the next track, probably the best one, "Necromantik". It's 14 minutes and could be compared to the almost as long "Den of Hades". Not only it has tons of inventive leads going through different states and moods, it goes back revisiting some riffs in a most memorable way and the vocal lines are truly of the best of the whole album with Temis - or maybe Gezol? - doing some most contained lines reminiscent of a less hysterical Temis Osmond and both simultaneously singing the same chorus lines. It starts with some clean guitar and is the most... I'd say melancholic, to some extent, song of the album. So it's epic, and what a better way than to close the album after an instrumental moody outro, to end with a five minutes instrumental track. Basically it means many leads, with a kickass rhythm section as a rather evil last half showcasing how Temis ripping his guitar. Man, was he just warming up?
Seriously, Satanasword shows a Temis Osmond playing as if it was second nature to him, showing he doesn't know the meaning of "inspiration" as he still continues to deliver riffs upon leads upon solos of solidity. As for the rhythm section, one of the best they ever did so far. First the production is top-notch, everything is perfectly mixed and make the instruments look really good. Gezol's bass has a huge rumbling sound and he does contribute some incredibly good sounding lines. Zorugelion still shows he's a solid drummer, providing some rather inventive and fresh beats during the less standard moments. Vocal-wise, it's Gezol best performance with his cleaner vocals but his accent is more apparent. It could be compared to what you would think would be Japanese heavy or power metal vocals. Though not including the Harmageddon eps, it's by far Temis worst vocal performance. While I like his style, I'm glad he only sings on two songs as on "The Gate" he is most grating during the chorus. He isn't that bad on "Death Zone", but too high pitched, it's his overall problem on the album; his performances seem to be a hit or miss sometimes, like he would try too hard. Still, he would improve on Karmagmassacre and the ...To Praise the Sabbatical Queen re-recorded tracks.
The album was also released as a PicLp and as with Karisma, it's a different take on the album. It's not a Japanese version though as they just changed the track order and replaced "Jealousy Carnage" for "Selfish Devil". It's interesting some of the later songs are played before and vice versa, it does change the pacing as "Necromantik" is played third. The exclusive track is good, but it's the least good song of the album and don't make up for replacing the other. Overall, it just doesn't sound as good as on the cd version; the last three songs block now broken, it leaves the album a little damaged.
So with Satanasword, even if they slacked some previous, more original elements, Sabbat still released something original and different than their past releases. Though here some songs can be seen as a little better than others, it's still more than solid, but amidst their other better albums, you wouldn't spin it as often.
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