Saviours

INTO ABADDON
Biography

Behold Into Abaddon, the second full-length by Oakland, CA, USA’s Saviours, and first for their new home at Kemado Records. Merging howling lyrical venom with an endless arsenal of corrosive guitar orchestrations, harmonized leads and runaway locomotive rhythms, SAVIOURS have been rapidly garnering international attention as one of the best heavy bands active today.

Formed in 2004, Saviours are the end product of a "vision-quest" by guitarist/vocalist Austin Barber and drummer Scott Batiste (both former members of Yaphet Kotto). An ipecac reaction to the sorry state of heavy music, they aimed to assemble an epically heavy, crushingly loud band that would reinvigorate their love for excessive volume. The band’s home base of Oakland, long since a hotbed for landmark metal and crust bands such as El Dupa, Neurosis and High on Fire, provided the decay and terror necessary to fuel such an effort. Inspired by ’70s doom, NWOBHM, power metal and ‘90s black metal, as well as that which informed West Coast hardcore punk and skate culture (think Black Flag and groups like BL’AST! and Poison Idea), Saviours fortify the positions originally suggested on their debut EP Warship and first album Crucifire with Into Abaddon, its punishing riffage and Barber’s venomous lyrics leading the charge. Rounded out by Drunk Horse bassist Cyrus Comiskey and D. Tyler Morris on second guitar, Saviours provoke a violent response to all in metal that does not ring true. Says Barber of the new material, “[Into Abaddon] is all about the unending abyss of the human mind – my mind, and its reaction to the state of the world today. It created itself. The world’s workin’ through me.”

The seven songs on Into Abaddon were realized by producer Joe Barresi over the summer of 2007 in Los Angeles, CA. Having produced bands such as Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, and Melvins, Barresi’s efforts assist the catapulting of Saviours into the upper echelon of metallic luminaries. “Joe blew our minds every day,” remarks drummer and principal songwriter Scott Batiste of his abilities. “He’s a tone master, and really gets into the bands he works with, to the point where he almost served as a new member in the studio. Our last few records captured what we sounded like live at the times in which they were made, but Joe was able to conceptualize that sound and make it even more powerful.”

Into Abaddon was written in a stressful period of chaos within the ranks of the band, some of whom were homeless and bouncing between friends’ couches and floors, chasing down their demons in between high-profile tours here and abroad with the likes of Mastodon, The Sword, Red Sparowes and Doomriders. “We had two songs written when we signed with Kemado,” remarked Batiste, who authors all of Saviours songs on mega-distorted bass, his rationale being that “if it sounds good through really thick, fucked-up bass, it’ll sound even better coming from all of us.” The band hunkered down and banged out the material in massive, 30+ hour a week practice sessions that spilled out of their rehearsal spaces and into the places where they crashed. “Our friends were getting pretty sick of us playing around them so much,” he said. But the work ethic of bands like Mastodon taught Saviours how to operate down to the bone. “Those guys are so dialed,” Batiste recalled. “Touring with them really inspired us to push through the hard times.”

Saviours embark on a US tour with High on Fire and A A Life Once Lost in January 2008, to coincide with the release of Into Abaddon then support The Sword on a UK tour in March/April.

Kemado Records...

Inspired by their common love of the dark and dirty sounds
of late 70’s and early 80’s New Wave Of British Heavy Metal,
the mighty SAVIOURS formed in Oakland, California, over
the summer of 2004. Current YAPHET KOTTO members
Austin Barber (vocals, guitar), Scott Batiste (drums), and
Mag Delana (guitar, also formerly of BREAD AND CIRCUITS),
joined together with bassist Cyrus Comiskey (also in
DRUNKHORSE) and 3rd guitarist D. Tyler Morris, intent on
saving heavy music from its current state of lackluster purgatory.

With the demonic vibe of classics like BATHORY, VENOM and
even BLACK SABBATH in mind, Barber began to scrawl
blasphemous diatribes that would make even the most thick
skinned Christian “rockers” shiver in their shoes. Meanwhile,
guitars were down-tuned, distortion was cranked up, and a
powerful, sub-harmonic, rhythm section lay down unearthly
grooves; SAVIOURS erupted with a brain-shattering growl,
finding a destructive sound that pays homage to their
NWOBHM heroes as well as nods to more contemporary
influences such as KARP, MELVINS and EYEHATEGOD.
After months spent spreading their demented gospel up and
down the ever-sinking and inevitably damned West Coast,
SAVIOURS entered the studio to record the epic Warship
EP. A three-song testament to unholy devastation, the
Warship EP announced to all who dared listen that SAVIOURS were a force that must be heard and heeded. The
always-diverse Level Plane Records joined forces with this
iniquitous alliance to release the compact disc and 12”.

Sacrilegious cover art and B-side 12” etching came courtesy
of highly acclaimed (and downright famous) tattoo artist
Tim Lehi, completing the flaming circle, so to speak. SAVIOURS
may be your salvation or your damnation. The
choice is yours.