renkls I have a three way tie going when I think of the best 'metal' album ever, between Edge of Sanity's Crimson, Ictus's Imperivm and this somewhat obscure masterpiece. If you are not aware, all three albums are single song ones, of quite massive length. This album however, clocks in at the imposing length of 59 minutes, 48 seconds. That's a lot of time to ask of a listener, and you'd have to expect that it would be worth your time to sit for an hour and listen.

In my humble subjective opinion, yes. Yes it is. The Dwelling stands out amongst Sabbat's discography, not only as an anomaly in its single song structure, but in its progressiveness. There are no real repeated segments, and it all flows as if it is a single continuous track, as it has been mastered as one. That's probably why I've insisted a few times that this album should also be on Progarchives, even if it is a majorly different can of worms to most of Sabbats work.

In an hour length, you'd expect there to be parts of the album that drag or deviate into monotony or predictability, but there are none to be found here. Although I am not as musically literate as some, I will say that the way the album has been made ensures that not a single moment of its impressive length is wasted. Even in the 7 minute instrumentation that fills the middle of the song plays out as a nessersary progression to the story, and remains constantly involving.

The story itself, is probably the weakest point, at least at the beginning, where it seems like a typical bewitching/black metal jam in a sense. However, on closer inspection of the lyrics, the album results in a twisted morality tale, where the actions of the 'protagonist' in the end leaves him haunted and 'doomed', at least, this is the impression I got from reading them.

Black metal, being as niche a genre as there is, tends to have quite incomprehensible lyrics, and in this albums case, this is no exception - however unlike some black metal where the lyrics do not complement the other musical elements, I feel that they are not out of place in the slightest.

If I had to step back and justify my perfect score, I would say there are minute segments that do not work completely for me - such as the interesting vocal approach 7 minutes in. However, being such a short niggle, there's no sense in holding that against the album, and in terms of the flow, it still works to progress the narrative and in the grander scope of the story.

Overall, I think from the black metal albums I have heard, this stands as a distinctive high point, and its obscurity even 15 years after its release is something that should be remedied. Even for those who do not generally like Black Metal, I recommend this album to. It's a good transition album if anything, and is quite a lot more accessible then its single song structure may imply. The time really does fly when you listen to it.

It's on Youtube in its entirety now, and it deserves more views/listens then it has had. But really, buy this album now, it deserves more then the occasional download.

optisailor2002 Long considered as one of the premier metal bands out of the Asian continent (along with Singapore's Abhorer), none of the prior Sabbat material managed to attract me, not until their most recent full length album, Sabbatrinity, with the appreciation of Sabbat's material coming about along with my appreciation of other Gezol-related projects, such as Metalucifer.

8 years after their previous full length album, 2003's Karmargmassacre, it is definitely a relief for long time fans of the band to hear that the band has not let them down with the material on the new album, sticking to the well-tested and proven formula that they have crafted over the years, and there is no slowing down or stopping the band as the album opens without any hesitation with Black Metal Scythe. The band's straightforward black/thrash metal has managed to enchant listeners over the years, and it is easy to see why with Sabbatrinity. Song after song, there are catchy hooks throughout, and Gezol's gruff and barbaric take on the English language makes songs even more sincere and authentic, and all instances of mispronounced words are forgiven, and it does not take long for listeners to shout along with Gezol on choruses of songs like Total Destruction, Root of Ultimate Evil and Witch's Torches (version 1).

The punchy basslines of Gezol are also extremely prominent throughout, and sees Gezol using his instrument to play more than a rhythmic role, at times taking over the leads as well like on Witch Hammers with the 2 bass guitar solos, along with the vocal duties that he has to handle. Damiazell's guitar solos are also well thought out, melodic yet not sacrificing any of the technical edge (like those on Total Destruction, or any other track on Sabbatrinity for that matter), and the rhythmic sections are sharp and precise, making the guitars one of the key features on the album.

Also, the band has stuck to the style that they have created since their beginnings in the 1980s, and this is especially prominent in the production quality of the album, with a label that come with some of versions of the album, warning listeners that this album has been done with "no digital compression", and displays the band playing their style of black/thrash metal in its purest form. The tone of all instruments on the album are organic, unlike the synthetic and over-produced metal albums of late, showing that it does not take a polished production job to produce an album that is a classic in its own rights. The inclusion of different versions of Witch's Torches also makes sure that the die-hard fans go out there to collect all different versions of the album, and while it might have resulted in me calling other bands money-grubbers, for the quality of Sabbat's songs, it certainly is worth the effort and money, hunting the 2 different versions down.

Albums like Karmargmassacre and Satanasword were often considered too raw and primitive to my then-untrained and inexperienced ears, but having encountered Sabbatrinity, any such prior impressions are gone, and this attitude of sticking to the roots is precisely what makes Sabbat have such a charm over old-school metalheads, and their reputation as Japan's answer to black/thrash metal legends, Venom, and playing heavy metal loud and proud in 2011 as if it were 1980.

Originally written for http://www.heavymetaltribune.com/

Wilytank "Hey, Wilytank. If you liked 'The Dwelling' so much, what is your opinion on Sabbat's other albums? You know, the ones that aren't 'The Dwelling'?" That was a question asked by myself to myself. Granted, I do really like all of Sabbat's material, 'The Dwelling' sticks out for being an hour long song. But let's go back in time. In the 80's, Sabbat released a few demos (EPs?) showcasing their thrashy, oriental black metal. When the 90's came around, the only original member left was Gezol. Sabbat would then acquire Zorugelion, Temis Osmond, and Elizaveat; all big names in the band's history. When 1991 rolled around, Sabbat finally unleashed their first official full length, 'Envenom', onto the world.

'Envenom' still reflects upon their 80's sound, but the songs here are all new (save for "Black Fire" appearing on some versions of this album). Another nice change is that they cleaned up their production a good bit, which is good since demos like 'Born By Evil Blood' and 'Desecration' had some really deplorable production. Otherwise, they still have a comfortable amount of grittiness to black up their sound. The bass is still fairly audible, a typically noteworthy detail in Sabbat's more well known demo era songs such as "Black Fire".

One thing that is absent from 'Envenom' and I wish wasn't is a decent amount of cleaner vocals. Sabbat's clean vocal songs in their demos like "Black Fire" and "Mion's Hill" were really good. On 'Envenom', there's only Gezol singing clean on "Eviler" and Temis' higher pitched, semi-clean vocals over Gezol's growls on "Carcassvoice".

Musically, this album is very well crafted. There's super thrashy pieces like "Satan Bless You", "Eviler", and "Reek of Cremation"; punkier licks "Evil Nations" and "Carcassvoice"; the much slower "King of Hell"; and mid paced tunes "Devil Worship" and "Deathtemptation". "Deathtemptation" in particular gets my utmost praise. It's probably the best crafted song on this album. The lead guitar is very impressive; the song starts out with an awesome solo, and a double solo appears later after the second refrain. I also really like the oriental sounding guitar during the first parts of the refrains of the song.

Unfortunately, I cannot give 'Envenom' a top tier score. For all its excellent moments, the album just doesn't as hard of a kick as some of Sabbat's later albums. "King of Hell" is actually skippable. I also really wish the harsh vocal production was better; I could barely hear it most of them most of the time. There's still lots of fun to have with this album though; and for those just getting into Sabbat, this isn't a bad entry point.

Doomster (Originally written for Amazon.com and the Encylopedia Metallum.)

I'm not one to give out perfect reviews easily. On some of my earlier reviews on other review sites I just threw around perfect ratings and overexaggerated the albums - they're still good albums, but I gave them too much credit. However, I believe I am completely justified in giving a 5 star rating to Sabbat's 1996 release, "The Dwelling", because it is quite possibly the most mindblowing creation a human mind can craft together and make it absolutely without flaws.

Sabbat are a Japanese black metal/thrash metal band formed in the 1980's. They have released many albums in the longrun, but only a few studio albums, one of them being this one.

It's funny, really. Black metal is probably one of my least favorite subgenres of metal music but this still manages to be THE, not one of, THE greatest song I've ever heard.

"The Dwelling" consists of one 59 minute and 48 second song called "The Melody of Death Mask". The lyrics of this song are typical black metal, following the story of a Hannibal Lecter-esque character who commits a string of murders to serve his purpose, in his own twisted mind, as an "artist". The riffs are melancholy and sorrowful and fit the lyrics perfectly, as well as Gezol's harsh vocals which are vicious but not too loud like with other black metal bands. The solos are viking-like and ooze with sorrow and beauty. The higher pitched vocals may sound ridiculous at first, but are a major attribute to the darkness of this album. The drums aren't essential to enjoying this album but at times they can be truly wonderful, like the drum fills during the last 10 minutes or so.

The lyrics, while twisted, really bring out the imagination in the listener. There is some profanities thrown here and there, but it's not an all out F bomb fest like other black metal albums. Also, throughout some parts of the album the lyrics describe the killer's forsaken house with a "secret basement" which I found interesting. As one reviewer said, you could just simply mute any old horror movie and play "The Dwelling" in the background, and discover many horrors in the process.

As for highlights of the album, there is literally too many to name. EVERY riff and solo is good, and every melody delivers like no other. Some riffs might make you feel filthy or "sinful" given the low quality production, but that's all part of the experience.

The ending of "The Dwelling" is the greatest thing ever written. Not just in music - this climax to this song really is THE greatest thing my ears have had the pleasure of listening to. For every riff that leads up to the solo which leads to the same riff we didn't hear until the very beggining of the song, followed by the haunted, apocalyptic chanting which leads to the dripping sorrowful guitar which ends the song with the same sound as in the first few seconds, everything about it is simply chilling in it's melancholy intensity.

Finishing this album is like finishing a good book - you are unaware of your physical existence for a few seconds, because for the past few hours you're eyes have been locked to nothing but the text. The dazed state only takes a few seconds, and you look around you to make sure you're still in a physical state. Sure enough, you are.

That is exactly how this album will make you feel. The greatest song ever written. Listen to this now, and be completely swept away in it's sad, twisted, brutal and sorrowful hurricane of emotions which will guaranteed change the way you look at metal, or possibly even music in general. Hands down, one hundred percent, the greatest piece of artwork ever made.

Wilytank There's something special about 'The Dwelling' that sets it apart from other magnificent albums that I have listened to. For the longest time, I've considered this album my personal favorite album ever in heavy metal or in music in general. Sabbat have gone through four albums of awesome evil sounding black metal; and when round five comes along, they spring an hour long song at us. This would either be really awesome or a waste of time. Not only did 'The Dwelling' fall into the former category, it went beyond awesome and made itself a very personal favorite of mine. Even any complaints I see about this song's length I consider shallow.

With such a lengthy song, there really is no proper way to listen to this album besides just hitting play and listening to the whole thing. The first few minutes start the song off slower with lead guitars and scary sounding vocals coming in after a bit. The production is perfect for a black metal album. It's not fine, yet it's not raw enough to make it totally sound like shit. This makes the song almost scary sounding. Before even entering the 3 minute section, the guitar breaks into tremolo riffing.

Sabbat have the good taste to keep things well varied in this piece. Only three minutes later, the tempo drops with the scary sounding ambient keyboards coming back into the background and a solo starting up. The tempo then speeds up while Temis continues his solo. It ends before the speedier section stops again; but when this section does end, the slow part before the solo comes back and his soloing starts up again. With that, a grand piano also comes into play eventually creating a auditory vortex of chaos as Temis's soloing, the piano, the bass drums, and Gezol's lyrical recital churns up the fires of hell stronger than they have ever done before.

However, we aren't even ten minutes into this beast! After the vortex ends, another tremolo riff signals the beginning another speedier section. When the slow it down again, they keep the ambiance and piano out of it and make it more of a mid-paced rhythmic section. It does acquire a scary tone around the 16:38 as it builds up to a slightly faster rhythm. In this faster rhythm, Gezol's clean lyrics are really haunting in sound. Once the lyrics end in this section, the rhythm slows down again with more frighting sounding musical section. Temis begins another lead with it going into another fast rhythm and Gezol's same haunting clean vox.

Finally we go into a totally new rhythm at 20:18. Gezol goes back into his black metal shouting/shrieking. After he's done with his vocal lines, the song speeds up with drums going into an almost blast-beat-like rhythm. This type of passage is repeated once. After the second time, a new rhythm comes in that soon slows down. Soon another, more mellow sounding, lead from Temis comes in with it eventually playing in melody with Gezol's bass. After a brief section of vocals and partial blast-beating drums, another lead comes in from Temis. This time it's less mellow and, when played with a blast-beating section, becomes really furious. Everything then culminates and builds up...

And then it all stops. Or rather it fades away to be replaced by acoustic guitar. We're just about halfway through the song at this point, and what better to celebrate the halfway mark than a haunting oriental sounding acoustic rhythm. This acoustic rhythm gets some accompaniment after a bit with a lead guitar playing with it as well as the bass and drums. The song speeds up again after the 31:30 mark with another lead from Temis. Then slows down with only the drums and acoustic guitar playing, followed by only electric guitar and bass.

This rather mellow section is finally ended at the 34:29 mark with a notably faster rhythm being played in tremolo and vocals soon coming back in. It eventually speeds up more with Gezol continuing his vocal lines eventually ending in "LAH-NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH!" This section is repeated with the same type of ending on the vocals. Then all instruments except bass. After a bit, the guitar, bass drum, and even the ambiance from earlier in the song come back in to buildup to a slow section of melodic playing on both guitar and bass. This instrumental section goes all the way up to the later end of the 41 minute section with the buildup returning to introduce a similar rhythm with different rhythm and no leading, but vocals do return. After one vocal passage, the leading begins again.

We're running out of time at this point with just a little more than 15 minutes left of the song. The rhythm stays mid-paced around here. When the vocals come in again, it sounds like Temis singing. His voice is distinctly higher than Gezol's. Though at one point, Temis's shouting and Gezol's lower haunting voice play through together. More sections of tempo changes and leads go in and out until Temis does another verse without ending in a duet with Gezol. The next run begins around the 49 minute mark. Gezol takes the lead vocal role once more with the music sticking to a mid-paced rhythm. Then, the music gets really fast with the guitar and bass playing together in a flying dual tremolo rhythm interrupted by the bopping on the grand piano. The flying dual lead and piano section are repeated again before mellowing out once more to a mid-paced rhythm. Gezol's vocals are recited in unison with Temis's lead before the lead totally takes control of the song. The lead continues on before returning to the original rhythm...

...and then we're back to the beginning? The rhythm is very much the same as the very beginning of the song. And you know what? What better way to end this? Closing vocal lines and lead guitar playing are gotten out of the way. Afterwards, the guitar plays some more notes by itself with bass and sparse percussion joining in a final push to close the song. The bass itself gets a little more prominent than the guitar even. The ambiance begins to fade back in with all the metal instruments still playing. Finally, the metal instruments all fade away leaving the dark ambient sounding keyboards to reflect upon the hour that just passed into the ears.

Wow. Just wow. Sabbat have seriously outdid themselves here. Gezol, Temis, and Zorugelion have played their respective instruments masterfully. Gezol's vocals are haunting and awesome as always, and his bass playing is inspirational as always. Temis's guitar prowess shines to it's maximum potential given all the room to do so. Zorugelion doesn't miss a beat on his drums, and he is the one who really signals the changes in the songs structure. 'The Dwelling' to me is the greatest musical production in the history of music. Though there may be other albums that I give the 100% to, I still give this album much more praise; and every time I listen to another album that might get a 100% score from me, I ask my self "Is this better than 'The Dwelling'?"

And the answer has always been "no."