Listening to Into Abbadon, it is clear that Barresi understands the essence of the group’s sound, crafting an album that captures the primal feeling of the band’s live show, building on the energy of Crucifire and taking it to the next level. Beginning with scorcher “Raging Embers,” Barber’s raspy voice sounds like a battle cry leading the way over soaring riffs through the album’s seven unyielding tracks. “Cavern of Mind,” which best articulates Morris’ piercing guitar leads, is an instant classic. Confident with the end product of their work, Batiste says, “The first record is a document of our beginnings. This time we had more of a vision of where we wanted to go with it. It’s a little more aggressive, more developed.” Barber is equally excited. “Everything is really real on it. It’s all recorded on tape. There’s no fuckin’ ProTools bullshit. Everything is really fuckin’ brutally honest. I don’t think our music has been very well represented on recordings until this new record, and I’m really stoked about it.”
Barresi found the experience rewarding as well. “For me, they just had a sound. These guys reminded me of Kill ‘Em All-era Metallica, where you put on the record and it sounds raw, it sounds live, it has melody, and really great grooves and great riffs. Cyrus is just ridiculous on bass. I couldn’t believe how good he was. And both guitar players are great too.”
Barber, the group’s lyricist, sums up the album’s concept with the words “As Above, So Below,” an occult phrase that scholars used for centuries to explain the workings of the world and connectivity of all spiritual planes. Although inspirational, Barber contends that “It wasn’t a premeditated idea; it just kind of manifested itself. That’s what I’m into. That’s the way I see life. It ends up in everything. Paintings, music, anything I’m doing—all the songs are pretty related to that. They’re all about different stages, or frames of mind of where I am. The songs are super individualized, but they are somewhat cohesive. They can all run together and tell a story.”
This theme, and the aforementioned “Cavern of Mind,” is further explored in the album’s artwork, which depicts an ominous glow emanating from the eye of a pyramid deep in a cavern of skulls illuminating the night sky. The image was designed for the band by the elusive Joe Petagno, who is well known for creating many classic metal album covers including the bulk of Motorhead’s back catalog and the famed “Snaggletooth” logo. Although it had been decades since he last agreed to an album sleeve, he enthusiastically signed on after sampling some of Saviours’ music. Petagno’s work graces both inside and outside of the album, though at first he was approached exclusively for the cover to the vinyl version because, as Barber emphasizes, “That’s how album artwork is meant to be seen, not through some shitty little CD case. It’s not big enough!”
2008 will find Saviours touring throughout the continental US and Europe, spending more time on the road than off. Though some might find such a schedule grueling, Batiste says the band welcomes the journey. “We’re not the band that watches movies in the van and doesn’t pay attention to anything. We listen to music and check it out the whole time.” Barresi echoes this sentiment: “Those guys are dedicated. There wasn’t a whole lot of money to make this record and they drove down here, staying at friends’ houses and sleeping in their van and doing whatever it took to make the record as good as it could be. That’s a real band to me. They don’t just play it; they live it.