Customer Reviews

Reign of Light

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've followed the career of Samael since the very beginning (back in the early 90s). If you played their debut album "Worship Him" back to back with "Reign of Light", you'd be pretty hard-pressed to believe it is in fact the same band. What began as a very basic, raw black metal band has progressed into an industrial entity with slashes of electronics, gothic rock, nu-metal and only the slightest remnants of black metal remaining. Throughout this gradual transformation, I have always remained a fan. Each album progresses further away from their roots, but always opens up new doors of experimentation and opportunity.

It's been 5 years since Samael's last release "Eternal". They've had some serious label issues that have resulted in a necessary hiatus. This has meant that my expectations for this new album were extremely high. I figured 5 years break should allow the band to come back with increased enthusiasm and inspiration. Perhaps even write a complex album to match the heights of 1996's "Passage". Unfortunately, this isn't the case. If anything, I feel this is quite a lacklustre release. It certainly has the sort of variation of sounds that have illuminated their work and it most definitely has made a progression even further away from the last release, but I can't help feeling that there is something missing from "Reign of Light". Or maybe it's just that Samael have finally moved too far from where I feel comfortable. It's just not metal any more!

It all starts promisingly enough, with "Moongate" being a really good track. I can even cope with the rap-like vocals as they work quite well in this instance. It's around track 4 (the title track) that the disappointment starts setting in for me. It becomes apparent that Samael are attempting to reach a commercial audience, which is made all the more strange by the fact that there are still no clean vocals. Basically, Samael have ended up somewhere in the vicinity of Rammstein, without any sort of dance-floor presence. Tracks like "As the Sun" are unlikely to sit well with metal fans and they are not really going to impress fans of Rammstein either. So whom exactly is this album directed at? I really couldn't say.

Now don't get me wrong, this is not a terrible release. There are many sections that I enjoy quite a bit. But I can't help longing for an earlier incarnation of Samael to raise its head. Maybe they can come back from this, but if we have to wait another 5 years till the next release sees the light of day, you can scrub Samael off my "anticipated future release" list.

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.

After five years of abscense, Samael appears back in stage again with their new album "Reign of Light" (to think that in their beginnings everything was soooo black!). I was suspicious about what Xy and Vorph had in hands, what kind of album they would bring to us. If they'd go for something more electronic, following the trend established since "Rebellion" that grew, as the albums passed by, or if they'd decide for something heavier and faster. Well it's in between the two.

"Reign of Light" is more straight-headed. The songs are somehow short, the album is short in general (barely passses 40 minutes of length) and simple, but the songs are catchy, and I don't mean cheesy. The album is easy to listen to, since their approach is not as dark, black or extreme as it used to be. Xy and Vorph keep on experimenting, but in it's due way, without abusing of the techno and electronic sounds and rhythms, creating a hybrid between the jewel "Passage" and "Eternal". The female choruses in "high above",or some arabian (or eastern, if you proper) atmospheres are perfect examples of good experimentation. Of course, "RoL" doesn't get to the level of (my personal favorite) "Passage", but it does have some fine moments of good songwriting. Samael might not be as extreme, or dark, or heavy as thay used to be, but they certainly didn't lose their touch.

I'm sorry to disagree with the reviewer that said that the opening song, "Moongate" is Rammstein-Like. How long are the paths of experimentation? How many times has Samael experimented in the past, creating something new and innovative?
"Moongate" is a nice mid tempo opening son. Then comes "Inch-allah". With mid fast rhythm and keyboards following the main rhtythm, similar to "Heliopolis".

The third song "High above", is probably one of the best songs samael has written in a long time. With a heavy mid tempo, remembering the "Passage" times in it's own way. The kind of song that sounds very heavy without being precisely fast. Very catchy, with accurate female choruses. "Reign of light" is another fast song, in the vein of "Eternal"'s "I", but with punishing guitars, and heavier in general. The sixth song "Telepath", is another "Passage"-like song. With different changes of rhythms.

Vorph's vocals are a little synthetized, like in "Eternal", but still keeping the malevolence of old, and much clearer. I miss his dark fresh "Passage" vocals.

From the sixth song to the last, the album gets a little monotonous, except for "Heliopolis" and some good touches. But the last songs are somehow obvious. I mean, the album stays in general with the same recipe from beginning to end, and I think, they should've created more layers. When I finished listening to the album, I thought that Samael didn't give their best in order to create a modern masterpiece; they simply did their job. "Reign of Light" is polished, refined, it has a great production and sound and catchy songs, like said before, but lacks of surprise, like a faster song, or something unexpected to close the album, for example (talent is not something these guys lack of).

Anyway, "Reign of Light" is a proper comeback album and, what is more important...Samael is back!!!!!

This is the first album from the band after an abscence of almost six years. The band has made a fine progression and is able to combine the electronic aspect of their music with their well known metal guitars better than ever before.
Also, the band has added some musical influences from the far east, which to my mind fits the music very well.

The production is very powerful and heavier than on its predecessor "Eternal". Parts of RoL remind of the glorious "Passage" era.

For first time listeners i recommend the title track, Moongate and On Earth

I know tastes differ from person to person,however for me,this is by far the best Samael album followed by Passage and then Eternal.I have been listening to it for almost two months now every single day and I still have the excitement I had when I first listened to it.The songs are all great. First of all, the unbelievable Moongate,followed by the excellent Reign Of Light and the "Hell-opened-its-gates-for-you" song, Further.Inch'Allah, High Above, On Earth, Telepath, Oriental Dawn, As the Sun and Heliopolis are all *great* songs, most of them better that the best of the previous albums.Last song left is Door of Celestial Peace, which although not bad,is impossible to shine between the rest super-songs.
The album as a whole,is a bit more "mainstream-ish" than the rest,but I think that no-one should blaim Samael for simply evolving the feature that made them difer from other similar groups-the electronic sound.If it helps,I'm generally a hardcore metal fan hating electronic music and yet I find this album to be one of the best I've heard.My advice...buy it!!!

After Celtic Frost dissolved, Switzerland had little name for itself in Metal aside from Samael, formed in 1987. They began as a slower paced Black Metal outfit and slowly evolved with echo-like industrial atmospheres.

In "Reign of Light" they go way beyond ... too beyond. The songs have a funky, uplifting feel to them and in a few Vorp/Vorphalack even attempts to rap! The album sounds so commercial and MTV-friendly I wouldn't be surprised if the song "High Above" ended up on the soundtrack of the next Vin Diesel/Angelina Jolie Sci-Fi movie. Had they limited production qualities by a few notches, as they did on other albums, this may have turned out OK, but "sell-out" is written in so many places it's too obvious even to take lightly.

Listen to a few songs. If the new "Prong-visits-India" Samael doesn't sound appealing, listen to Ceremony of Opposites, Exodus, and even Eternal if you like dark symphonic black metal.

Reign Of Light is a mind opener. It is an album you must hear. Samael have developed quite a different sound yet they remain on the same track. Production is not of this world. It is spacey and sounds so much more open than Ceremony Of Opposites. Reign Of Light is very similar in sound to Eternal. It's epic, exotic and natural. It's also very easy to listen to and absorb.

There I was dancing to one of the ultra catchy songs on Reign of Light, when my wife walked in the room. So I boogied over and tried to get her to dance with me but she said I don't like that music and I said listen to that beat isn't it a great beat. She said yes but I don't like that music and left. Needless to say, I kept dancing by myself but that don't mean the music was bad. You see my wife, like ninety percent of the music lovers in the country have vanilla taste, so it's not surprising that she didn't like Reign of Light for you see it's Black Metal.

Actually, it's almost Black Metal. I say that because Samael's creative duo of Xy and Vorph have again introduced an electronic/industrial feeling like they did on their last album Eternal almost six years ago.

Admittedly Eternal is a little better than Reign of Light with the songs being a little more varied and very creative but Reign of Light is not without merit. It has a similar sound to Eternal but is more homogenous. Because of this Reign of Light may appeal to some fans more than Eternal

As with Eternal all songs run between 3 ½ and 4 ½ minutes except for the bonus song, a remix of the Thomas Dolbyesque sounding "Telepath". Overall the music tends to be quite busy and filling with vocal and orchestral backing helping to maintain a melodic atmosphere in contrast to the harsh delivery. Some of the songs like "Moongate" and "As the Sun" are quite energetic with an excellent dance beat, with the latter resembling Rob Zombie. Several songs like "Inch Allah", "High Above" and "Helipopolis" have eastern influences and feature orchestral and vocal backing. "Helipopolis" (maybe the best song) has a guest sitar playing to good effect. Other songs such as "On Earth", Oriental Dawn and "Door of Celestial Peace", though not upbeat, contain the same catchy choruses and spacey rave atmosphere and almost to a song they are great to dance to, unless your planning hugging your sweetie on the dance floor.

Conclusion

Xy and Vorph started Samael in 1987 and their first studio release was an album called Worship Him in 1991. This album and three subsequent discs were in the extreme Black Metal sub-genre. These four recordings, the last of which was named Passage, were quite popular within the Black Metal community and generated a loyal fan base, which later felt left out and disappointed when Samael changed musical direction with the release of Eternal in 1999. Many of these early fans failed to see the merits of Samael`s metamorphoses, which made their music more palatable to mainstream heavy metal aficionados, like me. Many of these early fans feel betrayed, hoping with each new release that Samael would return to their roots but it don't seem to be in the cards.

For you early jilted fans who are anticipating Reign of Light is like Samael's first four albums, sorry, better luck next time. They are continuing their envolvement toward a more moderate, more atmospheric industrial style, which started with their in between album, EP release Exodus in 1998 and for me this is a better sound, being more melodic and less harsh. However I would say that Reign of Light is a little more like Passage than was Eternal but it's still closer to Eternal, a tiny backslide but not much. To these early fans I would like to remind them that bands change and musicians change. Theatre of Tragedy and Therion each made a drastic change, while Dream Theater made a moderate change, all much more than Samael whom I think, now make some damn good music, so try to forget your grudge and start to enjoy the Samael of the new millennium.

At one point I was wondering why this album reminded me of Rammstein. True Vorph's raspy vocals do resemble Rammstein's vocalist, Till Lindemann but there is a stronger connection. Turns out that Stephan Glaumann of Rammstein mixed this album. there is a strong resemblance to Rammstein and a lesser one to KMFDM, Tiamat and In Flames.

In Summary, what do we have? Samael's new effort is another Black/Industrial/Electronic Metal extratravaganza, a slick production featuring an orchestra and background singing, including an occasional ethereal interjection from guest singer, Sandra Schierert. We have an overall feel of Rammstein with a touch here and there of Dolby, Zombie, even KMFDM all adding up to one damn fine album. I can picture some folks disliking Reign of Light , maybe even fans of Eternal. True, no song in this album is as good as say the top four of Eternal but Eternal was near perfect, while Reign of Light is merely very good, so as far as I`m concerned, Mr D is one happy camper!
Final rating 4.4 stars.

This is a very good album. However, not all of the songs are winners. The best songs are Inch'Allah, On Earth, Telepath, Heliopolis, Telepathic. For some reason, the rest aren't that interesting. It's odd how Samael has a tendancy to make some great songs, and simultaneously make songs that somehow seem lifeless. The music on this album is at a medium tempo with plenty of keyboards. Some of the songs sound like they use Middle Eastern sounds, specifically Inch'Allah and Heliopolis.

I love the evolution of Samael, as they have moved slowly away from the cheesy, no-talent, cookie-monster vocal death garbage. This band has improved with each album & I believe the death 'n' cheese fans just need to find a new favorite band. There are plenty of childish Satan-bands out there that have the awful, froggy vocals. Those of us who love good music appreciate the evolving sound. If Samael puts out a Techno album in the near future, it will not only be great, it will make total sense.

Buy it.