Sabbath Assembly Unveil New Video for “Apparition of the Revolution”
“Apparition of the Revolution” is the second video to be made for a track from Sabbath Assembly‘s self-titled fifth album, newly released on Svart Records and positioned as the band’s casting off of their churchly cultish ways. The prior one, “Ave Satanas,” was essentially a horror movie, centered as many are around the destruction of the family unit, in this case by bloody knife-wielding murder. Fair enough. “Apparition of the Revolution” is significantly less narrative, given as is the track itself more to an atmospheric impression of its otherworldly ambience and dark, no less sadistic intent. If I compared it to a less experimental version of latter-day Jarboe, I’d hope not to take a punch from so much disagreement.
The track itself nears six minutes, but much of that is geared toward setting the stage and building tension to a resoundingly heavy payoff, sultry images and malevolent croon meeting with an underlying violence nowhere near as direct as “Ave Satanas,” but still certainly present. When its full breadth kicks in, a dirge-style march gets underway, guitars churning behind in a manner that contrasts some of the Mercyful Fatery they showed last time around but stands in line with classic metal one way or another.
Feel free to dig in below, and be rewarded for patience and openness of mind:
Sabbath Assembly, “Apparition of the Revolution” official video
The track hails from the band’s highly anticipated fifth album, Sabbath Assembly, released on September 11th via Svart Records. It marks a new beginning for the band: its “Great Schism” from the Process Church of the Final Judgment. Like the albatross falling from the mariner’s neck, the band has freed itself from the cult’s theology in order to explore its own creations – with no special guest appearances or narrative frills. Sabbath Assembly is, in fact, a decidedly metal offering, for in the writing, the band returned to its own personal roots in the dark age of the ’80s. These are Sabbath Assembly’s own “hymns” for their own “church” – a place marked by passion, devotion, and the gospel of metal.
Regarding the video for “Apparition of the Revolution,” the band states: “The promise of cults is superficial. Personal grandeur, spiritual elevation, heavenly reward – it all turns out smoke and mirrors in the end. The promised ‘revolution’ never comes; yet when in the throes of the cult, the apparition of it looms large, ghostly, immanent. This song and video is about the recognition of the ghost, seeing the apparition in all its mist. It’s about the crumbling and burning of the symbols of the cult, and the powdery dust which they become. Goodbye, Process Church of the Final Judgment. As it is, so be it.”
Tags: New York City, Sabbath Assembly, Sabbath Assembly Self-titled, self-titled, Svart Records
