Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Samael - Reign Of Light - 2005 - Nuclear Blast

Track Listing1. Moongate 2.Inch’Allah 3.High Above 4.Reign Of Light 5.On Earth 6.Telepath 7.Oriental Dawn 8.As The Sun 9.Further 10.Heliopolis 11.Door Of Celestial Peace 12.Telepathic – bonus track 13.Telepathic - video

The new release by Samael quickly brings to mind the music of Rammstein and it was truly an interesting change of pace after so many listens to Power and Progressive Metal as I have been doing of late. Described as Black Metal, I tended to disagree and felt it was more along the lines of Industrial or even Darkwave in some fashions. Leader Vorph has definitely constructed a unique piece of music and there are even some instances across the piece where his vocals come across like Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir in tunes like “Puritania”. There are even moments when you find this can be some sort of dance piece and this is due to Vorphs replacing the ripping guitar solos and drums with syncopated patterns and well-placed synth arrangements. Opening track "Moongate" quickly caught my attention as did "Reign Of Light" but a lot of the rest of the CD sounded too similar for me to really fairly judge one track from the next. “On Earth” and “Telepath” seem to be tracks the group is pushing and have some enjoyable moments in this. The CD includes another version of “Telepath” as well as a video for it.

The CD has a solid production and on second and third listens I felt that it also falls into the Gothic genre a little bit. It is unique enough to be able to be played in a club that caters to that kind of clientele and I truly think that they would enjoy it. There are times when the CD has a dark and brooding nature to it and that is often suitable to those types of Gothic environs. The packaging is also something that stands out as the jewel case has a foil embossed cover as a slipcase for over the plastic. It is nice looking. The interior booklet has lyrics for all of the tracks. I can safely recommend this to people who find music along the lines of Rammstein and perhaps even Theatre Of Tragedy enjoyable.

Rating: 7/10


-- Ken Pierce 07.30.05


Samael – Reign Of Light – Nuclear Blast 2005

Track Listing 1.Sound Is All That remains 2.Superior Machine 3.Penetration 4.Hell Of A World 5.Killing Word 6.Afterlife 7.Addictive Dimension 8.Scream When You Burn 9.Nothing Left 10.Escape Vision Pain 11.Losing Myself 12.Black Mirror

Samael began their illustrious career in 1990 with ‘Worship Him’ (1987 saw the first demo). They went on to release such masterpieces as ‘Blood Ritual’ and the perfect ‘Ceremony Of Opposites’. In the years to come Samael would explore more synth and electronic approaches to develop their own style of metal. The once masterful guitar riffs gone, the powerful drumming gone. With ‘Passage’ and even ‘Eternal’ the music suffered in comparison but Samael had created the best apocalyptic music in the world none-the-less.

After years of disputes with label Century Media and claims that they were not able to produce the music they wanted, Samael began trying to find another label. Finally after fulfilling the contract from Century Media, they signed with Nuclear Blast. Now they could produce the music they wanted, but the question remained after 6 years did anyone else want it?

The answer to the question is NO. Not one self respecting Samael fan should like this album. In fact to be honest if you want to remain a Samael fan DO NOT listen to this album. If you think Samael and Rammstein should be in the same league then this is the album for you. If you are fan of Blade movie soundtracks you will get a great enjoyment out of this. Either way if you are a fan of Samael all you can take away from this is a bitter taste of what is to come, farewell masters of evil.

‘Reign Of Light’ should have been the return we all wanted Samael to make but instead is comprised of more useless synth than ‘Eternal’. Every song that has promise is ruined by this element. Even with the addition of guitarist Makro this pales in comparison to any previous release due to the fact it is overpowered by industrial sounds. Besides synth, there are a lot of tribal rhythms and horrible backing vocals. If that is not enough lets examine some of the great song writing. ‘Moongate’ offers lines that stand out such as “How many nights will we spend together…” and “How many times will we go together…”. ‘High Above’ offers pleasing lines such as “Our bodies play their favorite game” and “I’m gonna take you higher baby…”. The most nerve racking part for me is in ‘On Earth’ Vorph begins “Before we could talk we were singing / Before we could run we were dancing” then starts naming off different places on earth. When he reaches Mexico he pronounces it meh-he-co, not only is he not from Mexico he sounds totally foolish saying it like he is.

It seems Vorph still has the vocal talent to pull off masterful works like ‘Ceremony Of Opposites’ but instead he opts for this upbeat techno synth pop dance metal crap. I don’t maybe I’m deep rooted in the past with this band but I think you get the point here. It would be easy to expect this to climb club charts. So grab your glow sticks, acid, and favorite same sex partner to dance the night away in a techno dream.

Congratulations Samael true Blasphemy in all it’s splendid glory!!

-1evil1 05.03.05