Sabbat - Behind The Crooked Cross

Quick question, when was the last time you kicked something over? It doesn’t have to be too serious, like a cow or a lollipop lady – we’ll take a wastepaper basket or a chair if it’s done in the name of rock n’ roll. However, if your answer is not within the last week, and not because of social injustice/the looming threat of nuclear war, you might not be thrash enough for this one. 

Sabbat are one of the Four Horsemen of British thrash metal, along with Onslaught, Acid Reign and Xentrix, forming the core set that turned the late 80s musical scene upside down. They’re quite probably the brainiest, too, with a much stronger focus on searing, insightful lyricism than the pots and pans banging by comparison coming from elsewhere. Yes, thermonuclear war is still namedropped like they might think you’ll somehow forget it exists, but there’s plenty of closer to home grievances that the band absolutely annihilate your eardrums in the name of, like the social inequality of small-town Britain and the dangers of evangelicalism. The track you’re about to listen to is about Hitler and the occult, however, so do try to leave some breathing room for more traditional thrash fantasies to play out. 

With all that said, History Of A Time To Come is still rightfully hailed as one of the great all-time thrash albums (and their debut, no less, making it even more impressive), so this is a Rock Song of the Week pick a long time coming for the spotlighting. Behind The Crooked Cross leads with a deceptive groove to really lure you in before spending another four minutes trying to sandblast whatever parts your headphones are touching clean to the bone. We know full well you little minxes are into exactly that, so at our pleasure, turn that dial clean off the system and go wild with this until next time. Just try not to be crossing a road while you’re doing it.