Maximum Metal Rating Legend
5 Excellent - Masterpiece. A classic.
4.5-4 Great - Almost perfect records but there's probably a lacking.
3.5 Good - Most of the record is good, but there may be some filler.
3 Average - Some good songs, some bad ones at about a half/half ratio.
2.5-2 Fair - Worth a listen, but best obtained by collectors.
1.5-1 Bad - Major problems with music, lyrics, production, etc.
0 Terrible - Waste of your life and time.

Note: Reviews are graded from 0-5, anything higher or not showing is from our old style. Scores, however, do not reveal the important features. The written review that accompanies the ratings is the best source of information regarding the music on our site. Reviewing is opinionated, not a qualitative science, so scores are personal to the reviewer and could reflect anything from being technically brilliant to gloriously cheesy fun.

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The best way to determine how much you may like certain music is to listen to it yourself.
Band
Samael
Title
Above
Type
LP/EP
Company
Nuclear Blast
YOR
2009
Style
Black
5/5/2009 - Review by: Raising Iron

Samael
Above

Company: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2009
Genre: Black
Reviewer: Raising Iron

  • Samael has returned to their roots with this latest effort



  • It's been fifteen years since Samael last dished out an aural feast with black metal as its main course via Ceremony of Opposites, but here in 2009, after several albums rooted in atmospheric/industrial/gothic overtures, they've cooked up a new platter of vicious, angry, and fast black metal called Above. Rarely has the pre-release hype for an album been so spot-on, as most everywhere one looked it was being said that Samael has returned to their roots with this latest effort.

    Above is more than just Worship Him worship though, as Samael has never released an album this fast and furious from beginning to end. Really, the double bass drums are on par with the speeds found in the most extreme of death metal bands, and the guitars blaze and buzz with all the fury of early Emperor. This time the keyboards are tucked back far away, merely accenting the chordal progressions; and Vorph's singing, though buried a bit too far back in the mix, is reminiscent of the distorted gurgle often found in classic black metal, adding to the furor exemplified on these ten tracks (eleven if you happen to own the disc with a bonus remix of the song Black Hole).

    On the whole, the band has sacrificed its usual use of dynamics, instead opting for a forty minute banquet of bowl-you-over blackened speed. Since it's such a jarring shift from Solar Soul, one gets the feeling that this may be a one-off--a Samael side-project of Samael if you will. But if blackened extreme metal is something you crave, look no further, as Above is sure to sate.


    • 1 :REVIEW COUNT
      4 :AVE RATING

    ALL REVIEWS FOR: SAMAEL
    TITLE
    DOR
    COMPANY
    REVIEWER DATE MADE RATING
    Above
    2009
    Nuclear Blast
    Raising Iron5/5/2009
    4
    Hegemony
    2017
    Napalm
    Eric Compton10/13/2017
    3
    Reign Of Light
    2005
    Nuclear Blast
    Ken Pierce8/10/2005
    -
    Reign Of Light
    2005
    Nuclear Blast
    Troy Cole6/9/2005
    -

    ALL INTERVIEWS FOR: SAMAEL
    INTERVIEW INTERVIEWER DATE TAGLINE
    VorphUnholiestgoddess4/12/2005

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