Samael (band)
| Samael | |
|---|---|
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|
 Vorph at Hunter Fest 2007 |
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| General information | |
| origin | Sion , Switzerland |
| Genre (s) | Metal , crossover , electronica |
| founding | 1987 |
| Website | www.samael.info |
| Founding members | |
| Vorphalack (Vorph) | |
| Pat Charvet (until 1988) | |
| Current occupation | |
Vocals, guitar |
Vorphalack (Vorph) |
guitar |
Drop (since 2015) |
| Zorrac (since 2018) | |
Drums, keyboard
|
Xytraguptor (Xy) (since 1991) |
| former members | |
Keyboard |
Rodolphe H. (1993-1996) |
guitar |
Kaos (1996-2002) |
bass |
Masmiseim (Mas) (1991-2015) |
guitar |
Macro (Mak) (2004-2018) |
Samael is a Swiss Metal - and crossover - band of morals , founded 1987th
history
In 1987 Samael was founded in Sion by Vorphalack and Pat Charvet. The band made their first appearance as a duo and also played the first demo Into the Infernal Storm of Evil for two. Only later did the bassist Masmiseim, who had previously played with Alastis , complete the band. On the debut album Worship Him , which was dedicated to Xytraguptors and Vorphalack's deceased father in 1987 and was released as the first album by the French label Osmose Productions , the bass was still recorded by Vorphalack.
After the release of Worship Him , Samael moved to Century Media , where the second album Blood Ritual was released. For the third album Ceremony of Opposites , Rodolphe H. joined the band as a permanent keyboardist. While Xytraguptor wrote the music, Vorphalack was solely responsible for the lyrics. After Rodolphe H. left a few years later, Xytraguptor switched to the keyboards. The following album Passage was recorded for the first time with a drum computer, as a new drummer for Xytraguptor was out of the question. In 1997, Xytraguptor's classical and instrumental recording of Passage was released by Century Media under the name Xytras.
In 1999, after a tour with Grip Inc., the album Eternal was released , which was initially recorded under the working title The Cross . Samael later decided on the title Eternal , because they feared that the intended title track The Cross would be given too much importance. All pieces should be placed side by side on an equal footing.
After the release there was a break between the band and their record company. The differences of opinion arose primarily from the question of how many records Samael still had to deliver to their contractual partner Century Media; Furthermore, according to Vorph, the label made promises that it did not keep. For example, it was extremely important for the band to be able to play and tour live, in this area "not everything went well". After several years the differences were settled and Samael released a new album called Reign of Light , which they produced on their own label Galactical Recordings and licensed to the Swedish label Regain Records . On the album, the band worked with Sami Yli-Sirniö ( Kreator ) and Sandra Schleret, the album was mixed by Stefan Glaumann ( Rammstein , Clawfinger ). Century Media in turn released the purely electronic double album Era One / Lesson in Magic # 1 , which was not originally intended for a release under the name Samael.
In 2007 Samael signed a contract with the German label Nuclear Blast , which released the album Solar Soul on June 1, 2007 . On March 6, 2009, the eighth album Above was released and in the autumn of the same year the band appeared as the opening act for Paradise Lost on their European tour. The album Lux Mundi was released on April 29, 2011 .
In February 2015 the band announced the departure of longtime bassist Mas. According to official information, this was done amicably so that Mas can fully devote himself to his independence as a lighting technician. During his time at Samael, he was responsible for the light shows of numerous other bands, such as Carcass, Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, Dimmu Borgir and In Flames at several concerts. In place of Mas was Thomas "Drop" Betrisey, founding member and guitarist of the currently paused band Sybreed .
In January 2017 Samael signed a contract with the Austria- based music label Napalm Records , where the eleventh studio album Hegemony was released in October of the same year .
In April 2018, the band announced the farewell to Makro, after which Drop took over his role as guitarist. The following July, the band was again completed by the bassist Zorrac.
Style and texts
In the beginning Samael played pure Black Metal , which has little in common with the mostly very fast playing style of the Scandinavian bands, but is played rather slowly over long distances. Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth von Mayhem was enthusiastic about their album and said he wished he had spoken to them about a contract with his label Deathlike Silence Productions . Mayhem and Samael were in contact through correspondence and tape trading before the Norwegian black metal scene attracted attention through its criminal activities. After Mayhem singer Dead shot himself in 1991, Samael bassist Masmiseim received a piece of his brain. Vorphalack explains the later right-wing extremist statements made by some Norwegian musicians as an inevitable consequence of their attempts to push extremes to extremes and break taboos. Such a point of view was "completely wrong", but he could "understand the way into such a hole". Samael himself published a T-shirt on which Jesus Christ was linked to the National Socialist slogan "One people, one empire, one leader"; However, this was pure provocation and should criticize Christianity as totalitarian. When asked about Worship Him , Vorph said it was definitely not the kind of music he preferred today; it was "not enough", but he still stood by it. He "would not deny it", but it no longer fits his view of things and Samael. Regarding the satanic texts, he said:
“At that time I was actually mainly interested in occultism . Everything that wasn't taught in school or in established sciences interested me, so it wasn't the books that ordinary people read that fascinated me. I was looking for the 'completely different'. I don't want to say that I found anything there, but I came across things, with points of view, from which I could use elements for myself. I actually only compiled and put them together. "
At first Vorph always greeted the audience with “Hail Satan!”, But this “had no special meaning. You used something like that to make your general anti-attitude clear. " On the second album Blood Ritual , keyboards were used to «create a dark atmosphere». The third album, Ceremony of Opposites, was already less puristic, with Rodolphe H. a permanent keyboardist joined the band, and Vorph began to take the lyrics “a little more seriously, to make them more interesting and profound. [...] The lyrics weren't as rebellious as they used to be, they became more intellectual and deeper. I think ‹Ceremony Of Opposites› is lyrically the most extreme thing we've ever done, I don't think we could have topped it. ». The EP Rebellion , released in 1995, contains electronic elements for the first time, partly technoid and film music ; With Static Journey a purely electronic track was heard there for the first time, with After the Sepulture (New Version) a slight tendency towards Industrial Metal can be discerned. The following album Passage was recorded for the first time with a drum computer and contains « Tribal » elements ( Jupiterian Vibe ), the Black Metal elements have been reduced to a minimum and replaced by electronic sounds that are sometimes reminiscent of bands like Laibach ; When asked about possible Laibach influences, Vorph stated that he valued Laibach, but was unable to say “whether and to what extent they directly influence us”. The music became more symphonic and reinforced with keyboard choirs. In Shining Kingdom flowed Pop elements a, The Ones Who Came Before based in part on a constant techno beat, occasionally by increasing the BPM is broken while playing the guitar in A Man in Your Head to one for crossover and Alternative Metal typical reef . Waldemar Sorychta , Century Media's in-house producer, said during the recording of the band that he suspected that they would need another producer in the future who was more knowledgeable about electronics.
On the EP Exodus , released in 1998, Samael experimented again with electronic music: The titles Son of Earth and From Malkuth to Kether feature techno and breakbeats , the latter only appearing in the background due to the use of breakbeat-atypical percussion . The metal elements were retained, however, while the band was "subject to a permanent artistic metamorphosis"; Vorph said in a later interview:
“I think there is no point in erasing these elements. We started out as a metal band and have always stayed one. We tried to develop and [sic!] , To try things out. But we don't want to lose our roots. It is important that you have a solid foundation from which you can go new ways, but which you can also return to. "
On the 1999 album Eternal , the band offers a conglomerate of crossover and electronica / downbeat elements; Breakbeats were used repeatedly in Ways , and techno rhythms in Track I. In addition, symphonic metal and industrial metal bonds are consistently represented on the album. Singing and music show parallels to Laibach , especially in titles like Nautilus & Zeppelin . Being , on the other hand, uses elements of the vaudeville blues . A precise stylistic assignment of the work proves to be difficult, as it mixes elements from alternative metal, heavy metal , blues , hard rock , symphonic metal, pop, techno, electronica and industrial metal. The lyrics are personal, Us and Together are “about relationships in general. You can read that as love texts, but in principle it's about separation and missing ties. " The Cross is ostensibly about the Christianization of Switzerland, but there is "still more to it [...] than 'just' another text against Christianity". The text is patriotic and a reaction to the fact that "Switzerland is always a little ridiculed in world politics" and the Swiss were accused of "unfair financial machinations during the Second World War" in the course of events in the USA. Vorph found "the reporting back then was pretty one-sided and decided to write something about the beautiful sides of Switzerland".
Reign of Light (2004) is interspersed with electronica and alternative metal , elements of the New German Hardness increasingly emerged. On a musical level, Reign of Light is an intensification of its predecessor Eternal . As on the 1996 album Passage , tribal and world music elements were processed on Reign of Light . The raga elements used in Moongate and Heliopolis give them a slightly oriental, psychedelic touch, Heliopolis is based on the oriental scale (see Phrygian mode ). The sitar used for this was recorded by Sami Yli-Sirniö ( creator ). Sandra Schleret contributed the female vocals on Moongate . The album was mixed by Stefan Glaumann ( Rammstein , Clawfinger ).
The double album Era One / Lesson in Magic # 1 contains purely electronically arranged music that is clearly based on ambient and electronica ; Guitars appear only sporadically and in a strongly alienated form, such as in Home , which is also accompanied by tabla percussion. The Laibach-like vocals were largely retained on titles such as Night Ride , Diamond Drops , Above as Below and Koh-I-Noor . Voyage , on the other hand, uses synth-rock elements. The only rhythm guitar based song on the album is Universal Soul . The successor Solar Soul can be musically integrated between Passage and Eternal and offers - apart from the increased use of female vocals in Suspended Time - no fundamental innovations.
On the eighth album Above , released in 2009, the band again oriented themselves towards Black Metal, but unlike in the early years, the songs are comparatively fast and technically more sophisticated. Also surprising is the clearly punk- heavy piece Virtual War , which moves between Discharge and Impaled Nazarene . Some of these rhythms were heard on previous recordings by the band, and Mas suggested adding them back to the sound of Samael. Polygames have been compared to Impaled Nazarene in the Ugra Karma era.
The album Lux Mundi from 2011, on the other hand, is musically linked to Reign of Light and Solar Soul . The eleventh studio album Hegemony , released six years apart , is described by various music critics such as Metal Hammer or DarkScene.at as a cross-sectional album that "refines the original style" or "pretty much all of the influences and band trade marks of the long career skillfully united ".
Discography
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Studio albums
- 1991: Worship Him , re-released in 2005 with bonus titles
- 1992: Blood Ritual
- 1994: Ceremony of Opposites , republished in 2005 including Rebellion -EP
- 1996: Passage , republished in 2007 including Exodus -EP
- 1999: Eternal , re-released in 2007 with bonus tracks
- 2004: Reign of Light , re-released in 2007 with bonus DVD
- 2006: Era One & Lesson in Magic # 1 (double CD)
- 2007: Solar Soul
- 2009: Above
- 2011: Lux Mundi
- 2017: Hegemony
Singles and EPs
- 1988: Medieval Prophecy (7 "single)
- 1993: After the Sepulture (7 "single)
- 1995: rebellion
- 1998: Exodus
- 2004: Telepath
- 2005: On Earth
- 2007: Valkyries' New Ride (promo MCD and MP3 single via Nuclear Blast website)
- 2009: Illumination
- 2010: Antigod
Demos
- 1987: Into the Infernal Storm of Evil
- 1988: Macabre Operetta
- 1989: From Dark to Black
Live albums
- 2003: Black Trip (double DVD)
Compilations
- 1994: 1987–1994 (double CD: Worship Him and Blood Ritual )
- 2003: Since the Creation ... (vinyl box set of previous albums)
- 2007: Aeonics - An Anthology ( Best of CD)
- 2008: Medieval Prophecy
- 2010: A Decade in Hell (box set)
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Samael on MusicBrainz (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Burghardt: Samael Eternal Black Trip. June 12, 2003, accessed February 22, 2010 .
- ↑ a b Anja Lochner: Interview with Samael . In: Orkus , edition 7–8 / 99, July / August 1999, p. 37.
- ↑ Interview with Vorph. vampster.com
- ↑ blabbermouth.net
- ^ TV: Samael - Inked A Deal With Napalm Records. In: terrarelicta.com. January 24, 2017, accessed December 25, 2017 .
- ↑ samael.info
- ↑ samael.info
- ^ Małgorzata Gołębiewska: Samael - Worship Him. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 2, 2007 ; Retrieved June 1, 2010 (Polish).
- ↑ Interview with Euronymous (Mayhem) in Bård "Faust" Eithuns Orcustus
- ↑ Fafnir: Samael (Vorph) interview of October 12, 2004. Terrorverlag, October 12, 2004, accessed March 11, 2011 .
- ↑ Mark Fisher: Samael. March 2009, accessed November 23, 2009 .
- ^ Andres Castro: Samael - Above. Retrieved November 23, 2009 .
- ↑ Sebastian Kessler: Review: Samael - HEGEMONY. In: metal-hammer.de . October 13, 2017. Retrieved December 25, 2017 .
- ↑ DarksceneTom: Review: Samael - Hegemony. In: darkscene.at. November 4, 2017. Retrieved December 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Samael in the German album charts. officialcharts.de
- ↑ Samael in the Swiss hit parade. hitparade.ch