Customer Reviews

Above

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Samael used to make some of the best black metal. Everything from Worship Him to Passage (with Ceremony of Opposites as the peak) was amazing. Then, they started to do what a lot of bands do after being a band for a long time; they started getting "experimental". The short of it is, they essentially turned into Rammstein. For me personally, I didn't care for this change. It wasn't bad music, it just wasn't the Samael that I used to listen to and that really upset me. I would still buy their discs and ultimately I would feel sort of like I wasted money. On one album (Reign of Light) they even started turning into techno dance almost and that was pretty much the final straw. Solar Soul (their last album) was mediocre as well.

In their new album, Above, they finally decided to start making metal again. It's different metal than their old music, but still black as hell and still brutal. No techno dance pop...no rammstein-esque vocals...and plenty of operatic themes and crunching riffs. It's not the EXACT return to form I always hoped for, but it's close enough.

Thank you Samael...

Wow - It's actually something new in BlackMetal!

This record is definitely one to pick up if you like blast-beats - not so much if you want some bland electronic music like Samael's recent outings. I'm a huge blackmetal fan, and occasionally listen to some darker electronic music; been putting up with the last few records from these guys, but missed the greatness of their earlier work. They just completely redeemed themselves! I wasn't expecting this sound at all when I bought the record, but it ended up being the best surprise I've had in a new CD in ages! This one will be staying in my listening rotation for the foreseeable future.

The new sound mixes the semi-stale electronic sound of the last few records (ends up being some faint background ambience), the same vocal styling that has pretty-much always been black-metal sounding and was fairly out of place in the old electronic sound, and an incredibly heavy dose of old-school blackmetal blasting! The drums on this record are a huge highlight - insanely fast and technical; I am assuming the drums are all programmed, and they don't actually have a drummer that can play this fast, which makes the music all the more interesting (not much less so if he does physically play this fast). The guitars are a wash of perfectly distorted melody, while being the most cliché part of the record as far as the black-metal theme goes, they still have some great catchy melodies that keep the music flowing really well - I've even caught myself humming these melodies a few times in the past week. Add in some stop-on-a-dime precision and a perfect mix that makes every punch hurt and keeps the vocals in the background where they belong, and you have some extremely catchy songs that should seem like a real breath of fresh air to anyone who has been a little bored with the blackmetal coming out in the last few years.

\m/ I can't recommend this record enough. Buy it now. \m/

Murat definetly did his research.

Above is a combination of everything from SAmaels first album up to and including Passage. Fortunately it excludes the past few releases which were basically garbage.

While we may never hear the brutality of Ceremony again or the majesty of Eternal, Above combines these elements w/ some decent vocals although not the Ceremony type.

If you're anything like and passed opn the last 2-3 albums don't be fooled again, this album is worth a listen.

Samael's previous two albums, Solar Soul and Reign of Light, are marked with heavily industrial elements, and the songs are highly atmospheric and predominantly based on the foundation of drums and synths. Those expecting a follow-up to these albums had better be prepared, as new album proves to be a shift in focus.

Above severs the band's ties with these discs completely, as it is centred around guitar-based compositions from start to finish. Keyboards are minimally applied, and thus only serve as a parameter to give extra dimension to the songs. Actually, with the exception of "Black Hole," building from a majestic hook, the synths are almost inaudible as is the bass. What we are presented with here is the heavy use of Xy's drumming, which is loud and crushing, and the intense riff work of Vorph, who continuously churns out tremelo-picked riffs while providing his feral, venomous Black Metal shrieks on all of the tracks. Above is a total return-to-roots record, disregarding the band's recent synth-driven industrial noisecapes, and drawing heavily on their past whilst also borrowing some elements from Scandinavia.

This was originally intended to be a side project, as Xy obviously wanted to busy himself with more aggressive, fast, and punishing material after having put out the heavily atmospheric and synthesized Era One, but once the band's songwriting duo were convinced with the quality of the compositions, they decided to run with the idea. This is the reason why the songs differ vastly from Samael's recent material. They were composed with a totally different mindset. The songwriting is more direct than it has been for years; the compositions are considerably more simple, containing fewer experimental ideas and fewer metaphorical lyrics, but they are more powerful for a live setting. To complement this, Fredrik Nordstrom's mix, done in only four days, gives the album a somewhat live feel, which fits the atmosphere and flow greatly.

Unless given many, many listens, the songs will blend into each other, giving the initial impression that the album sounds uninspired and bland. This is not the case at all. Careful listens become utterly rewarding, as one gets to uncover the band's aesthetic sensibilities and threads of melodies planted in each track. The riffing on songs like the album opener "Under One Flag" and "Earth Country" take on an almost ritualistic vibe, performed with utter conviction. Vorph's scream that opens "God's Snake" is frightening and face-rippingly brutal, while Xy provides ever-present blast beats and double bass drums without making it a one-man's show.

There are points that can be criticised though. One may not be too fond of the fact that they seem to draw on Scandinavian-oriented death/black metal idioms in places, perhaps a la Amon Amarth and Dimmu Borgir, with all those distorted vocal effects and production aesthetics. That they have reduced the keyboards and recorded ten fast, brutal tracks, at times boasting sub-standard production values, begs the question why Samael want to go back to pure nordic Black Metal when they haven't dabbled with the genre in more than a decade.

The booklet lists numerous influences of Samael, from Slayer to Bathory to Venom to Black Sabbath and Motorhead, but there is also Sentenced and KISS who found their way into the band's sources of inspiration. Who would have thought?

Definitely worth checking out. Hopefully this disc will help some fans discover their earlier material, stuff like Passage, Eternal, and their creative zenith Ceremony of Opposites.

All I can say is, with all honesty I haven't even listened to the entire album not to mention given it much of a chance. I think I will now I don't know why. If you're hoping to hear something similar to their latest and more atmospheric/industrial albums then you'd be dissapointed.The keyboards are almost inaudible here. This is more of a return to their black metal roots with harsher vocals and blast beats and what not. While I think that they're best albums are Eternal and Passage. I out of respect of their musicmanship I may check this out once more. Still, I wish they had taken what they have used in the last albums and taken it a bit further instead of regressing 15 years or so. Anyway, this is an old school extreme metal type of album. A lot of screaming, agression and speed. If you're into that you may like it. Anyway, I'll give it a few more spins but I'm not sure how much I'll like it. I already have 100's of albums that remind me of this type of music and frankly I was hoping for something a bit more...atmospheric I guess.

I am not a huge fan of Samael but I like them enough to keep buying thier albums. "Above" utterly lacks the maturity they were attaining on previous albums. I will listen to it a couple more times but most likely it will find its way to the 'record-and-sell' pile. I find little merit for this sort of music. It was interesting when I was fourteen years old -- don't understand why they would go back to it. The recording is horrible -- anything interesting going on is barely discernable at best. I will be more careful with this band from now on...

Well, I don't long for the old days of Samael's death metal sound. I like Samael's later music (from Passage to Solar Soul) so if you like the ultra-fast stuff with horrible Cookie Monster vocals, don't take my word for it. Read the the four&five-star reviews. I find this new-old sound childish & horrible. Death metal was overdone 15 years ago. I hate this sound. I'll take keyboards, techno-drumbeats, and Rammstein over this crap any day of the week. I've listened to this album one time & I've already given it more attention than it deserves.

What happened Vorph and Xy? You used to put out such great records, such as Passage, Era One, Eternal(my first), Exodus and Solar Soul. I'll admit that Reign of Light wasn't so great but at least it had two songs I liked. Ceremony of Opposites had one good song. As for the fans who cry out for the old days, screw them. They're nothing more than narrow-minded pissants who only like one thing, music with no character. I consider myself more of a fan of music and I like it to have melody or something approaching it. On the other hand, I like black metal too. (Behemoth for one and by far not the only one)
This cd was so disappointing, save for one song, I almost considered getting rid of it. But since I am a big fan, I felt I should give it a few listens and as a result, it gets two stars.
The subject matter people? Really? You listen to that and you can understand a single word? I listen to any kind of music period and it means nothing to me. Because I like music for what it is, music, and couldn't care less what the subject matter is; except political crap, leave that to crappy artists like Bob Dylan, PLEASE.
They should have kept this as a side project and be done with it and get it out of their system and get back to some good stuff.