SAMAEL quick reviews

As I've listened a lot to SAMAEL lately I thought I'd do some quick reviews of each of their albums ... Sometime in the future I'll probably do something more about my fave Sam-albums. We'll see...

Worship Him (1991)

Never really been a big fan of black metal. Got Mayhem's "Deathcrush" EP many years ago. Thought it was both cool and crap at the same time, haven't listened since. Unfortunately, pretty much the same goes for Samael's debut. I won't say it's a bad album, but certainly one of the most boring kinds of metal I've heard. I'm glad they re-worked "Into The Pentagram" though!

Blood Ritual (1992)

Still their doomy black metal sound but at least this one's better than the debut. To me, this album is starting to show more of the way Samael would take in doing their music. A great step forward, though still pretty boring compared to their later stuff. One awesome classic here in "After The Sepulture". They did an even better version of this song on a self-titled vinyl single / EP, on which the song had doomy, dark piano along the riff.

Ceremony Of Opposites (1993)

Here things are starting to get more interesting. It's their last black metal album, but it's also a great step toward what they would become known for. A classic that should be heard by any metalhead, no doubt. Some classics here also.

Rebellion (1995)

An EP including re-worked versions of "Into The Pentagram" and "After The Sepulture". Also features a cover of Alice Cooper's "I Love The Dead" and the classic title track. Last song is the somewhat unnecessary "Static Journey". Good EP anyways.

Passage (1996)

The band's "big" breakthrough album. Drummer Xy(tras) started programming the drums and took over keyboards instead (although still sometimes combine live- and programmed drums live). The band also added a guitarist to the line-up for this one. To me, this is a very logical and great step for the band to explore, which I believe they really succeeded with. Most tracks on here are just amazing. A true classic.

Exodus (1998)

Another EP this time consisting of left-over tracks from the Passage-sessions. This is yet another great collection of not-fillers-at-all. In fact, I'd rather see most of these tracks on "Passage" rather than some of the songs that are on it. The re-issue of "Passage" did however include this whole EP and made everything complete, to my appreciation. Greatest thing about this EP, to me, is the re-recorded version of the Ceremony...-song "Son of Earth".

Eternal (1999)

My favorite Samael album. This is just some pure and amazing artistic pieces on here, Samael's ace. Some fans love this, some hate it. I understand both parties, but I personally love it more than anything else they've done. Not a single bad song on this baby and the keyboards are just outstanding. The only thing I dislike (very little) is the guitar sound. It sounds like their amp was a microwave owen. A must have!!!

Reign Of Light (2004)

This is yet another special Samael-album to me, but not really in a positive way. Apart from their first two (black metal) albums, this is my least fave album of theirs. The reason is the strong oriental influence on this album. I'm not a big fan of folk music of any kind, especially not oriental. It's not a bad album, but to me it don't really gives me much more than "On Earth", "Telepath" and the title track. Artistically however, this is yet another great step for the band to evolve.

Era One (2005)

A special project by Vorph and Xytras, but as I haven't listened to much to this yet, I don't feel like saying too much about it. The only thing for now is that the song "Flying High" is amazing.

Solar Sun (2007)

Samael's next and last oriental influenced album, although it's not as much oriental as Reign Of Light. I had a half-hard time getting into this album because of it's influnces, but it eventually grew on me and I think it's a solid, good album. Not really their finest moment, but almost every song on this one ended up on my MP3. Best songs are the middle section - "On The Rise" to "Ave!".

Above (2009)

Originally thought to be released as another "virtual band", although scrapped (by the record company?) and released as Samael anyway. I would've prefered the original idea. The reason is that this album, mostly of all, has a horrible production. I almost can't stand it and certainly not through the whole album. The songs are not really the most fun bunch either. There are some good ones like "Polygames" and "Black Hole", but otherwise it's all very one-dimensional and almost meldodic death metal-sounding. Pretty boring songs with a horrible production ... This goes with their first two albums to the bottum.

Antigod (2010)

The band's latest EP. This time it's a pretty useless EP though. I imagine it only served as a support for their upcoming album at the time, as "Antigod" would end up on that one. There's yet another new version of "Into The Pentagram" on here, which I like the most of all versions. Other than that we see a remix, an instrumental and two live tracks ("Reign Of Light" and "Slavocracy"). It IS worth getting if you really liked the Rebellion-version of "Into The Pentagram" and wanna hear an updated version, but otherwise it feels pretty useless.

Lux Mundi (2011)

Possibly my second or at least third fave Samael album. I can't decide which one is better, this one or Passage. Hard one to say the least. Anyway, this album goes back to that era, Passage-Eternal, although picking up from Solar Sun at the same time. Every track on this one ended up on my MP3 and it feels like they're back on track with this one. The only thing I'd want to see with this album is the inclusion of "Into The Pentagram" from the Antigod EP, and this album would've been perfect.