Sabbatic Goat - Imprecations Of The Black Abyss

I am very lucky and happy to have been given the opportunity to review this New Zealand 4 piece. Sabbatic Goat is ritualistic death/black doom at it's finest and what a surprised that they put out this 2014 demo release on non other than cassette. This pro-cassette holds 4 tracks but is more like 3 tracks considering that the first one 'Breath Of The Abomination' is a simple into of soundscapes, which btw is very cool non the less.

"Imprecations Of The Black Abyss" has been released on the Canadian label Vault Of Dried Bones and the cover art by Seth Bennett. And the layout by Vault Of Dried Bones.

Another surprise or not - is that this release is limited to only 100 copies and that is cassette copies keep in mind (:

My take on "Imprecations Of The Black Abyss" - these tracks are great! Raw, violent, merciless and to the point. This demo is vibrant in a most horrific sense. The dual vocals are bashing the riffs rip through and leave your insides bruised. The percussion is what holds all together within these tracks. The 4th and final track is a cover of Black Witchery's "'Into Damnation Eternal' is well executed however my personal favorite track would have to be the 2nd track titled 'Flesh and Might'. All the old school death metal elements are found within this one also influence of punk can be found here and throughout. I would say that there is more punk edge here mixed in with death than there is elements of black however black metal traces can be also heard here and there throughout as well.

The only complaint I have with this release is the fact that it is limited and only limited to cassette copies as well. To me if they wanted to be old school and get back to basics this could have been released on vinyl however I guess that vinyl is the new craze and that Sabbatic Goat wanted to stand apart from what everyone else is doing - good for them sucks for me and people such as I lol!

Even though this release is raw and primitive in sound ,it is meant to be this way and all appears to be well thought out and blended together as nice as possible within a ritualistic rage of aggression.

I give Sabbatic Goat and their cassette demo "Imprecations Of The Black Abyss" 3 on 5 stars. Get it if you can!


1. Breath Of The Abomination
2. Flesh And Might
3. Chaos Ritual
4. Into Damnation Eternal (cover Black Witchery)