To sum up a sad story, Martin Walkyier and Frazer Caske depart from Sabbat (Walkyier for musical differences, Caske due to personal issues). So we have an excellent band at the peak of their career, with a slew of endorsements and a boatload of hype, facing the inevitable…end the band now, or make some replacements and forge on as best you can. Andy Sneap and Sabbat opted for the latter option, and went on to produce one of the biggest disappointments in metal history. Several reasons are obvious, new vocalist Ritchie Desmond's voice is all over the place, not necessarily bad, but he blends throaty forceful mid-range stuff with an annoying wail that doesn't mix well with the music. As for the music, the production on this album simply sucked. The rhythm tracks were repressed, the bass guitar too loud, the solos devolved into annoying, screeching tin-scraping noise. Sneap's writing is apparent, there are some halfway decent riffs (or there would be if you could hear them better). Lyrically the band departed from their medieval pagan fantasy stuff to mode worldly, socio-politically aware material, which also doesn't work here. I'll bet the companies that endorsed the band after hearing their amazing first two albums cringed when they heard the final product of this one. Do what I do. Completely forget the fact that this album ever existed. It's that bad.

© 2000 pizarro