First published as an omnibus edition back in January of 1997, Guy N Smith’s ‘Dead Meat’ collected together all of the author’s Sabat stories which had been published at the time.

The omnibus included the brand-new short story ‘Hellbeat’, as well as the short story ‘Vampire Village’ which had previously appeared within ‘Horror Shorts - 2nd Collection’ (2001).

It should be noted that since the release of the omnibus, additional ‘Sabat’ stories have been published, including the novels ‘Sabat 5: Wistman’s Wood’ (2018) and ‘Sabat 6: The Return’ (2019) and the short stories ‘Hellfire’ which appeared in ‘Horror Shorts – 1st Collection’ (1999), ‘The Witch Of Warsaw’ which appeared in ‘Hangman’s Hotel’ (2014), and ‘The Robber’s Grave’ which appeared in ‘Tales From The Graveyard’ (2020).

The omnibus contains the following full-length novels. Click on the titles for detailed in-depth dissections of each novel:

• ‘Sabat 1: The Graveyard Vultures’ (1982)
• ‘Sabat 2: The Blood Merchants’ (1982)
• ‘Sabat 3: Cannibal Cult’ (1982)
• ‘Sabat 4: The Druid Connection’ (1983)

The omnibus also includes the following short stories:

Vampire Village – 8 Pages

Whilst in Germany, ex-priest and SAS trained killer (with the soul of his evil brother trapped inside of him), Mark Sabat, has been lured into the manmade ‘Vampire Village’ named Verboten, by a young and beautiful girl named Ingrid Bacher, whose brother Gerd Bacher has gone missing after viewing a property in this eerie village.

Typical of Sabat, he cannot resist Ingrid’s charm and after spending the night with her, goes to Verboten to investigate the disappearance of her brother. However, once Sabat is in the deserted village, he quickly realises that his undead enemies have actually set a diabolical trap for him instead.  Once against, Sabat will be put to the test.  The outcome being life or death...

For all the excitement of another instalment into the Sabat series (however short it may be) ‘Vampire Village’ is unfortunately a rather disappointing read.  The eight-page short is unusually weak in its delivery, with a slow-paced plot that merely meanders along until the frustratingly obvious ‘twist’ to the tale is dropped on the reader. The short then quickly wraps itself up in frankly a decidedly uncreative way and then simply ends in a bizarrely abrupt manner. The short is perhaps the weakest inclusion within this particular collection and certainly a disappointment for the ‘Sabat’ series as a whole.

Hellbeat - 7 Pages

The evil spirit of Sabat’s dead twin brother was active again. For a year or more Mark Sabat had fallen into the hope that Quentin had given up and was finally gone forever. That was until Captain Nadel of the New York City police department called him. It was a personal plea for help. His twenty-year-old daughter, Yvette, had gone missing.

Furthermore, the police captain knew the cause of his daughter’s disappearance. It had something to do with the new rock movement people called ‘Hellbeat’ that was sweeping the city. It was making kids go crazy. Making them do things, rebel, lusting to kill. Some of the kids had been found later on, bloodied, their corpses almost unrecognisable. Each one undoubtedly victims of Satanic human sacrifice. There was only one man who could save Nadel’s daughter from such evil. That man was Mark Sabat…

Ending the omnibus, we have this final short story which is pretty much the blueprint for Smith’s later novel ‘Deadbeat’ (2003). Here we see Sabat facing up to a rock group called ‘Doom’, who are all the rage in New York, due to their unique new sound they call Hellbeat.

It’s one of those short stories where Smith spends a large proportion of the time establishing the backstory and setting everything in motion before anything really happens. When Sabat does eventually start looking into Doom, of course luck is continuously on his side, seeing him handpicked from the audience for an after show gathering and then handpicked again to come up on stage! What are the chances?! Nevertheless, it’s a fun and wildly over-the-top 80s style pulp horror offering, akin to a condensed version of Richard Ayre’s ‘Minstrel’s Bargain’ (2015) trilogy, only with our moustachioed protagonist doing his thing.

The collected volume runs for a total of 443 pages.

© DLS Reviews

Other ‘Sabat’ instalments:

• ‘Sabat 1: The Graveyard Vultures’ (1982)
• ‘Sabat 2: The Blood Merchants’ (1982)
• ‘Sabat 3: Cannibal Cult’ (1982)
• ‘Sabat 4: The Druid Connection’ (1983)
• ‘Sabat 5: Wistman’s Wood’ (2018)
  
• ‘Sabat 6: The Return’ (2019)