Playing the gnarly doomed death of ‘Into The Pentagram’ from debut full length 1991 ‘Worship Him’ it really is evident how much Samael have changed over the years. The Frosty, hoary minimalist vibe of yesteryear has gone through a big metamorphosis taking on electronic emphasis and reinventing the band as though they have been dragged through a black hole and come out the other side of time and space. This is one of the craggy old tracks that has been reworked on this stopgap EP and of course this particular track already got a more modern interpretation on the ‘Rebellion’ EP in 1995. It has never sounded more majestic than now though and the production is a million miles away from the original as it bristles and shimmers away. Still retaining that weighty doomed demeanour it just stomps all the harder and proves that despite repeated re-workings this old favourite, which still goes down a storm live, has plenty of legs left to it yet.
Of course this is about new song ‘Antigod’ at the end of the day and it is not quite as ferocious as the blackened ‘Above’ but perhaps more akin to the symphonic sprawl of ‘Passage’ and ‘Eternal.’ It has a militaristic and futuristic sound and one has the image of a fleet of battle cruisers just about to invade a planet on the far flung edge of the galaxy listening to it. Vocals are distorted using effects, at time giving them a merciless and robotic feel. There are two versions of the song, the second is the ‘Dark Knight’ remix which pushes the knobs and dials and makes the sound harsher and even more alien giving it the dance floor boost that should have it battering out the speakers at the night clubs.
Naturally the release needs a bit extra to make you bang out your bucks and a couple of live tracks are on hand to do this namely, ‘Reign Of Light’ and ‘Slavocracy.’ Particularly interesting though is a Xystras special on ‘Ten Thousand Years’ an enigmatic and baroque instrumental sounding like Bach dragged kicking into the new millennium. This would make a great intro for the band to come on stage to and thinking of which, it’s probably about time they swung into town again. Antigod is a good stop gap release but one that gives no indication really of what we can expect next from this always interesting band.
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