Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Beauty of Emptyness, May 7, 2001
"Ceremony of Opposites" is Samael's crowning achievement. Mid-paced, loaded with killer - and discrete - keyboard arrangements, it blows off 99% of the competition, which are too enthralled on the "I-am-faster" stupidity. "Ceremony" also features the best lyrics of 2nd generation Black Metal. They steer away from the 3 main themes in this particular scene:1) the "I-kiss-the-goat's-a**" theme;
2) the "I-am-a-clueless-modern-viking" theme;
3) or the "Coldbitten-Frost-of-Icy-Nebular-Winterstorm" theme. The song "Crown", in particular, has one of the best lyrics I've seen in Rock music. I've rarely seen such anger, such emotional emptyness, such hatred towards life put on paper. If you want to appreciate the very essence of a thing called "evil", "Crown" is the best treatise I've read to this date. Not many dare to the look into abysses of the human soul. There, you'll find the higher - and real - human nature. Cold.
Lonely.
Indifferent. Whether you're a Cabbalist - a Buddhist - a Sufi - a Hindu - or, in this case, a Satanist, your path is towards freedom... eventually, you'll have to dip your feet into this empty abyss... and find your true soul...
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
black metal played to a different drummer, August 29, 1999
By A Customer
Samael's "Ceremony Of Opposites" cd, set forth a new standard in black metal (and make no bones about it, this is serious black metal judging from the intense lyrical content). Deliberately mid-paced and incredibly produced, this is almost an anti-black metal disc, so clean and crystal is the production, and so well paced. Opening with a massive push is "Black Trip", furious double bass drumming and intense riffing give way to a mid-paced, almost melodic piece that sets the tone for the entire disc. The vocals are decidedly death metal like, completely going away from the primal Darkthrone shrieks of anguish, which for my tastes, are near unlistenable. The rest of the cd goes on with near symphonic pieces, a dimension they go to with the addition of a keyboardist, and the riff dominant music contained. A fine cd, crafted with care and pace and most of all, with passion. Now, Samael are experimenting with techno beats and sampled instruments, which is going a little too far in my book, but if you want a finely crafted, aggressive, and heavy GUITAR driven cd, "Ceremony Of Opposites" is their crowning glory; a work of a band hitting all their creative cylinders. The best release of '94, bar none.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AMAZING MASTERPIECE , September 17, 2005
This is one every Black/Death/Doom/ fan must hear to know just what an amazing job has been done on this cd. Here are 10 tracks of extraordinary, dark and meaningful yet not for one second sounding pretentious. It is almost excruciating to listen to Vorph's cries of anger. This is not a band that is trying to just sound good, these guys puth forth a believable hate for christianity, and not by writing music that concentrates on demons, but rather being realistic in every way possible. When I get goosebumps while listening to music, I know I've stumbled unto something amazing. Just buy this cd, you won't regret it for a second, actually you'll be glad you did. And this release also has the mandatory follow up EP Rebellion. What a package.
The thing I really like about Vorph's vocal use is it has appeal and real emotions behind it, not like Deicide(I used to really enjoy listening to Deicide when I was younger, but it does nothing for me now, especially since I refuse to waste my time with such repetitive emotionless crap lacking everything a hard album should offer, except speed, but making the songs fast is not all there is to making an album hard).
There are no real stand out tracks here, which is good because it retains its wholeness to stand much higher than many other albums, even by Samael. I woke up this morning with the lyrics of Son Of Earth, that is how powerful this album and band are. In my review of the Samael album 'Eternal', I said "Ceremony Of Opposites was always my favourite but this album(Eternal) has grown on me much more". I'm not really sure I can stand by those words, as there will never be another album as soul piercing as Ceremony Of Opposites. This may not have the epic sound like Eternal does, but it has something that eternal lacks entirely, and that it a pure hard, rough like a thousand sandstones under your bare feet. The way Vorph spews forth the lyrics on this album, and the words he has chosen are so bold and effective. The last track on Ceremony Of Opposites(which is the title track)makes my skin crawl. But don't listen to that song before hearing the others, as it only has that effect after listening to the entire album. This album must be listened to in its entirety to be fully appreciated. Adding Rebellion onto the same disc is rather a catch 22 in my opinion. Being a really nice addition to Ceremony Of Opposites on hand, but after listening to the Ceremony Of Opposites album in its entirety I like a little bit of silence to get my breath back. It really is a breath taking experience.
Excellent artwork for an album well deserving of it. The cover is so matching to the music, its almost part of it. I couldn't imagine any other artwork being used on Ceremony. This is art at its finest, both musically and graphically.
"We're a part of everything as everything is a part of us" is the cryptic response issued by Vorph, Samael's guitarist and vocalist, when questioned about whether or not he associates Samael with the notorious trappings of black metal.
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