When Samael posted new song ‘Illumination’ on their MySpace page we were both surprised and illuminated. If you have not heard it yet go give it a play and you will notice one thing that it is a lot faster than we are used to. In fact there are blasts behind the ferocious drumming, a feral hunger from the vocals and everything has shot up a notch from it’s predecessor ‘Solar Soul.’ Well the news is that each and every track on the album is in that vein and this could even be looked on as Samael’s black album (and no that is not a reference to either The Damned or Metallica).
It’s not like they have not done this before. In the beginning we had gnarly and unholy praying at the altar of blasphemous death. By ‘Ceremony Of The Opposites’ an industrial edge had began to pervade and with ‘Passage’ the Laibach worship, one that front man Vorph does not deny in the slightest. So why now, why reinvent themselves yet again? Well I am going to have to be cruel and tell you to buy Terrorizer issue 181 to get the complete lowdown on that but for now you can breathe a sigh of relief that they did not go further down the same route they had been travelling; let’s face it one Deathstars is quite enough thank you very much!
‘Above’ sees the Swiss group making a tribute to their early years and first influences. It was originally going to be released as a side projected but once they realised that this was the sort of direction they wanted to go to polish up their live show it was decided to shelve that plan and release as a Samael disc. ‘Under One Flag’ starts with what sounds like a Tornado about to take off and then fires into a militaristic sounding industrialised snarl. It is at this point that you realise the velocity behind this is charged and that Xy has really put the drum machine programming on full spin. The chorus hits and you can tell that melody has not been forgotten here and this both pounds and delivers a memorable bombast. ‘Black Hole’ seems designed to work with Windows Media Player as that is exactly the imagery the fractals spiral into as it pounds in. This runs all over the place in a headlong panic and feels as though it is on the verge of implosion. Guitars spiral in the background and the drumming is really pushed to the limits at the front of the mix blazing away hell for leather.
‘Earth Country’ reminds a little of Rotting Christ, the songs certainly have that dark mystic vibe about them. There is an evident immediacy about them too with the average running time around the four minute mark they do not outstay their welcome but volley out everything in their armoury before the next one carries on the assault. ‘Virtual War’ does kind of stick out partly due to a deranged keyboard peal weaving its way through it and a galloping bravado to the delivery. Basically ‘Above’ gives you a damn good 42 minute workout topping it off with a remix of ‘Black Hole’ and leaving you feeling like you have just been in the midst of a warzone.
Even before this is released the band have been touring the old songs extensively. First leg saw them with Deicide and Vader, second with Keep Of Kalessin and Noctiferia (another band who have undergone strange musical metamorphosis during their career) and 3rd in America with Carcass and new death metal breeds Suicide Silence and Arsis. By constantly evolving it would seem Samael can fit on pretty much any extreme metal bill and it will be interesting to see both where they go from here and what other options open for them on its release.
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