07-09-2016, 10:50 PM
Artist: Sabbrabells
Release: Live!! (1986)
Rating: 7.5/10
Here we are with Sabbrabells' first and only live album, released a few months after the great Sailing on the Revenge. It should be noted, however, that the live VHS of that same concert has a longer run time. I'm not quite sure why King Records thought it'd be a good idea to cut it down to a mere thirty minutes, but one guess of mine is that it could've been due to the forty-minute limit of vinyl records. In that case, why not have the rest of the performance on additional discs?
Nonetheless, this is a pretty straight-forward live album that I'd consider more as a best-of album than anything else. There's not a second wasted that doesn't have the band either playing or saying anything, as if the audience isn't even there. It's cool that the album kicks off with "Metal Saber", which I'd consider to be Sabbrabells' best song. It's a shame that it wasn't featured on any of their main albums, but it's better than nothing. It's a great, riff-driven speed metal song that reminds me a lot of the kind of metal that Wolf would play in a couple years. It has that powerful marriage of catchy, hook-laden riffs and pounding drums, as well as high-pitched squeals a la Rob Halford circa 1982. Continuing on, "Cold Bloody Men", which I don't think was on any of their previous releases, is a mid-paced song that's somewhere between pure hard rock and pure heavy metal. "Hell's Rider" is where it gets really good again, and it was on their self-titled debut album. I haven't compared both versions, but I think that the live version is carried on with more precision, especially when it gallops towards the end with the chorus.
On the other side of the album, "Midori Iro no Me no Onna" is a slightly odd song that sounds reggae-ish at times, albeit appropriate for the band's overall style. It's one of the softer numbers, but there's a lot of substance to go by here. Likewise, "Shinigami no Namida" is the other experimental song with a softer, melodic vibe than the whole of the album's first half. Closing off is the classic "Devil's Rondo", which was originally on their self-titled debut album and had been re-recorded for Sailing on the Revenge. Another huge favorite of mine, with lots of balls-to-the-wall riffing and don't-give-a-shit vocal attitudes.
Two of the songs that weren't included are "Stop the Motion" and "Dog Fight", the latter of which can be found on its 1985 EP of the same title. That's another great heavy metal tune, and it's a shame that it didn't get featured.
Sabbrabells wasn't just another by-the-numbers band that only cared to ape Judas Priest, and despite having written songs with that band's signature style in question, they interpreted them quite differently. The vocals are especially pretty unique, as if Paul Di'Anno and King Diamond had fused their very best moments and gave us Kiichi Takahashi. Not even that, but the lyrics written have more to do with the occult than anything else. You could easily compare them to Crowley or Metalucifer.
All-in-all, a great live album with nice production values, but its short length is what disappoints me. Only for serious fans of old school heavy metal.