Last month a colleague of mine reviewed an album and particularly laid in to the fact that they were Christians, and how despite the fact that the lyrics contained obvious tones of preachiness they were otherwise incredibly secretive about their pearly white nature. No lyric sheet, uninformative website…all the usual designed to lure the unsuspecting listener into their pathetic attempts to inject their wholesome message into our filthy little minds. Now, I don’t have quite the same Christian radar (Chradar? Chrisdar? Gaydar?) as my friend, who I think begins to fry up when within 25 feet of a crucifix, but there are a number of things that cause me to believe that Schammasch may be of the holy too.
Warning bell #1: Their MySpace page categorises the band as metal/religious. Warning bell #2: Metal Archives tells me their main theme is Spiritual Darkness – not a concept I am especially familiar with although a search brings up a lot of biblical hokum, one example being; ‘Many Christians will give a testimony of how they lived in spiritual darkness for years without giving hardly any thought to where they would go after death. Before a person can be saved, he must "wake up" out of the spiritual sleep he is in and realize he is on his way to a real lake of fire (Rev. 20:15).’
Warning bell #3: The accompanying booklet reads; ‘Schammasch – A new light shining.’ This goes on to describe the album as ‘our interpretation of ancient mythology’s legacy; the original source of faith and this life-fulfilling question about mankind’s relation to a higher being – and to oneself, the search for truth and light – and enlightenment.’
So while I do have my suspicions, it would be rude to come out and say either way whether they are justified or not. There is nothing preachy about the music here and there is certainly nothing that would spoil my enjoyment of listening to it. The more important fact to get to here is that musically this is all rather good stuff. Never mind shining lights, ‘Lux Eterna’ comes booming in with an underlying sense of darkness and really sets the tone for what is to follow just nicely. This crawls along at a slow pace, vocals weightily delivered in a fearsome rasp before fizzling out to make way for ‘He Whose Face Is Made Of Entrails.’ There’s a deathly thud behind this owed to the formidably crushing bassline, and coupled with the roaring vocals there is no shortage of intensity here. Everything seems very much in place really and there’s a fine balance between that deathly force and more blackened influence, and at times I am drawn to think of Behemoth. The clattering drums offer a slight sense of chaos which really picks up of course for ‘Chaos Reigns.’ Acerbic guitars really slice away through a glutinous atmosphere, at times casting an icy sheet over proceedings and the vocals are full of passion and desperation.
‘Black But Shining’ certainly shimmers brightly and it’s a definite highlight for me. It’s a real slow burner, focussed heavily on creating a dark and intense atmosphere – there’s some excellent guitar work to be heard and I find it quite a bit hypnotic. I think from here on in there’s a creeping doom influence with some clean, misery-drenched vocals in the vein of Danny Cavannah on ‘MRI,’ and an overall melancholic overtone. I really do like the hypnotic guitars again here, and once the initial mourning has passed the guitars stomp away with a hell of a sense of purpose.
Christian or not, this is a well crafted debut album from this Swiss trio and I found it really enjoyable. I have to say that I prefer the second half as the intensity really picks up and the doomier overtones come into play, although that’s just a matter of personal taste and shouldn’t detract from the earlier tracks which are certainly good in their own right. The light is shining alright.
http://www.myspace.com/schammaschch
