Samael - Illumination

[vicek669]

lucifer iluminato man !! :D

[DarthMohammed]

I love that they got back to their Black Metal roots, but I think they mixed the vocals a notch too low. Just me. Just me?

[Tehstroyer]

@DarthMohammed:

Just you. ;-) At least for me (but not only) everything is overshadowed by the drums. Just like in Metallica's ...And Justice For All.

[SuperibyP]

@Tehstroyer i have to agree with you, the drums are overpowering, but i like it that way, to be honest...

just personal preference!

[Xogroroth666]

@DarthMohammed Not just you, they did indeed a too low power setting on the vocs.

[Amilkar1Augusto]

hola a todos les saludo desde Guatemala puro Rooockkk

[MrOodinn]

So im a Dimmu- Old mans child fan , but i found these guys form the video thay youtube suggests you watch . fucking amazing . downloading all of it tomoro as soon as i git home

[666Apparition]

I agree. I, too, had "Worship Him" and the others. About fucking time they got angry again!

[syedismailfaris]

ILLUMINATI! :p

[matfoss1]

@syedismailfaris Fuck Illuminati.

[thanatos8618]

Back to the Samael's black metal times?

Good songs, vocals and riffs from this album. But I hate this recording quality.

[DemonosSilvast]

Isnt this album supposed as be somekind of Samaels sideproject??? Either way it sounds very good!!! Finland cheers!!!

[bloodyrockfire]

@DemonosSilvast yes that's right this whole project was formally build up as a virtual band consisting of Samael's songwriting which later became one of their records.

By the way to the ones who claim I should say these guys are "back" don't seem to have such varied musical tastes,no offence.

[Zhark00EW]

Awesome album covers

[elddr2]

yeahhh samael i like this f........ song god

[TheEmpireofEagles]

sounds so different from their other stuff...guess its the real drums...

[MrPERPS]

Sold,,,

[bobihun88]

Great album!

[slay3r43v3r1]

vorphs vocals are so fucking great at this album...

[blackgreencat]

great, great, great, as everything from Samael

[Enysvar]

a very "gnostic" song :)

[Haemoglobinic]

I am definately buying this album now.

[kyynhima]

one of the best early black metal bands

[sukhoy12]

Gut!!!

[TheMetachita]

vacano



[downsider45]

Funny how a lot of people who are fans of Solar Soul and so on see this as a huge step backwards when this album is actually a tribute to their musical roots. By that I mean back when they first started.

[jwa1882]

Holly fucking YES!!!! This is a truly refreshing sound to hear from this band!!! SOOOOOO glad they pulled their heads out of their asses!!!!

[UnidentifiedLifeform]

@jwa1882 lol dont get used to it, according to them this was just a one time deal to pay tribute to their roots

[lndrymtthw]

@UnidentifiedLifeform Im pretty shure your wrong considering how awesome Above sounds. I would expect them to start playing like this permantly and expand this sound alot because Above like kills all other black metal albums. Doing so would increase their fan base considerably, it would draw back in there old black metal fans that gave up listening to team after they started playing industrial, keep their current fans because this is just so awesome sounding, and probably draw in new fans from

[UnidentifiedLifeform]

@lndrymtthw theyve already confirmed on their myspace taht this was jsut a one time deal, this wasnt even meant to be a samael cd but they basically got lazy and instead of starting a new band they just relesed it as a samael cd as opposed to releasing it as Above which was gonna be the bands name, and you must remember samael does their music for the love of making new music, they dont give fans what they want, they make the music that THEY want to make.

[UnidentifiedLifeform]

@lndrymtthw I think thats why I like Samael so much, they dont care what their fans think of their new music style, they make the music they want in the styles they want, and if fans don't like it, it doesn't stop them, I greatly respect Samael for that reason, and I really don't like their black metal stuff as much anyway, i find the very spiritual almost psychedelic themes alot more compelling than than the black metal themes, to me most black metal themes seem too samey, but that's just me

[lndrymtthw]

@UnidentifiedLifeform Great points, i like all of samaels albums except for the first two ( Both of them are really good compared to other early black metal bands but they still contain the horriable singing that most black metal bands have). But i really love Above because they got really brutal, like death metal brutal, and i think they should stay that way, because this sound works. If they would refine this a bit more and add more industral metal into it they would best band EVER.

[UnidentifiedLifeform]

@lndrymtthw now i do see where you're coming from but at the same time i like samael because they arent brutal, they are my unwind band, after a long day of work and death metal i usually use samael to unwind from work and just relaaaax.

[eliottelescorielese]

@lndrymtthw I thought the same thing. It would be amazing if they mix their industrial abilities with this black metal album, it would be something new

[DarthMohammed]

@lndrymtthw If they refined this and added more industrial, wouldn't that just be another Passage or Eternal album?

[lndrymtthw]

@UnidentifiedLifeform death metal( what i mostly listen to alongside industrial metal) because their new songs are so fucking extreme that i had eargasm's listening to them

[my9demons]

I have just found out samale and their great work. I-m

listening line 24/24 ,and to think about it ...from '94 to now

all of their songs beat's almost every band from now these days.....

Just GREAT!!!!!!

[ptysiak94]

i must say my fauvorite albums of Samael are Solar Soul and Reign Of Light but Above is AWESOME also

[Deracos]

this is a great example when great artists decide to follow their own creative desires instead of "giving their fans what they want", and the result is incredible.

[jydjr2002]

god damn i missed the REAL Samael, welcome back!

[AlfredoDepths]

I actually prefer Reign of Light and Solar Soul, this is just uninteresting black metal. But of course, that's just my opinion.

[SlaytanicMayhem]

Another great comeback

Sounds very immortal-ish

[babylon333]

Samael rule again like the good old times. Hail Samael!!!

[DanielLegendaryJarl]

Indeed... listening to this new album almost made me go 16 years back in time when I used to basically listen to 'Blood Ritual' and 'Ceremony of Opposites' all day long. It's fucking good to have them back.

[CioranQc1]

Not bad... It's really better than Reign of Light or Solar Soul but according to me, Passage is the best Samael's album.

[DCHCD]

Awesome!

Not as good as Blood Ritual or Ceremonies, but way better than Solar Soul!

[my9demons]

@DCHCD if you had listen to solar soul in a tehnical way you would see that it's a diffrent style....like an experimental one. From my opinion Solar Soul is somenthig that gives industrial a bit of credit and something to hold on for the new bands...

[DCHCD]

@my9demons

Maybe, but IMO Samaels style is black. They were it, and they will ever be. Ceremonies, Blood Ritual and Worship Him were their greatest Albums, but then... But they came back with Above. Very good stuff

But thats all IMO ;)

[hjalmar77]

great songs, but the production, especially the vocal mix fucks its quality

[Arkandji]

I love all styles of Samael, they really progressed and greated a new awesome sound. I do not like bands that stagnate on the same sound for over 10 or more years. Samael really did a great job here.

[TheCatblack7]

yes Samael changed the music style but their are still a great band a change is progresS never regresS glory to the Pentagram!

[XDoomriderX]

This cd was a letdown, i'm not buying it but the "space" cd's are AWESOME!!!! passage up til solar soul YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! This last one I mean is like, what the hell happened???? :( I hope the next one won't be like this. Instead of evolving they tok like a million steps back HAHAHA IMO

[CascadedDemise]

Well from what I have heard, Vorph and Xy wrote this album originaly as a side project release, but liked the songs so much and wanted to play them live, so they went ahead and used Samael. They wanted to go back into more of their original black metal style for it. I think it's a great album personally. But I do love Passage.

[JJTechnologies]

this is simply terrible. Regression. Was supposed to be a side project and funny experiment but turned to be a full album. Nonsense

[thrashmetalz666]

they put out an album sounding like their originals... get the fuck over it

[93riven]

does this sound to you like Blood Ritual???

[thrashmetalz666]

it sounds a hell of a lot closer to their earlier stuff, but not exact...

[93riven]

it sounds like a piece of crap.

[JJTechnologies]

agreed - maybe sounds a bit bitter, but they tried to do the same thing they did in the past yet it's impossible. It would probably be not bad if released by some new band, but not someone who released Eternal. I treat it in terms of an experiment. The band themselves won't ever say it's the best they done - just a funny experiment is all

[iFer88]

liked the "industrial samael" but whatever, I like bands that do new things in every album because the same stuff kind of bores...like dimmu's in sorte diaboli album, they came out with new sounds and it went out great...bands that do not evolve suck...and only changing members is not enough...right mustaine?

[NintendoDevil]

They're more aggressive, but not really early black metal like they where. I personally would have loved a return to black metal though.

[thrashmetalz666]

Im laughing right now at all of the new Samael fans complainging about Samaels return to their Origins

I think it could not have been better

[thrashmetalz666]

complaining*

[1norwood1]

Meh, Worship Him, was the first Samael album I bought personally I think Eternal / Reign of Light is their best period, such a unique and amazing sound. People expecting bands to keep producing the same sounding albums again and again are a bit misguided in my mind, bands need to keep producing new stuff and innovating to stay fresh.

Hell imagine if Celtic Frost never changed their sound from Hellhammer days, we wouldn't have gotten Into the Pandemonium, one of the greatest albums of all time.

[thrashmetalz666]

ANDDD that's in your opinon... and I think Celtic Frost kinda sucks... but that's just me.

[1norwood1]

What about Bathory then, Twilight of the Gods is miles away from The Return, just about all the first wave / early second wave BM bands changed their sound from the start of their career, look at Mayhem, they put out an album like Grand Declaration. Emperor put out Prometheus, which is a long way from Wrath of the Tyrrant. Look at modern Enslaved albums, my point is expecting a band to stay true to their original sound is a bit unrealistic, music evolves.

[thrashmetalz666]

An example I could use is Gorgoroth's new album QPAST, they've returned to their original style... and its better than the "br00tal" shit theyve put out in the past years

[maggotforlifecrisse]

That's a great album!

[LORDHATE76]

LOL How can you not hear anything without trying? are you dumb or without Ears?

[XDoomriderX]

I LOVE Samaels Passage-Solar soul, this sounds more in the direction of their earlier stuff that I don't like. I'm not a fan of black metal but when I first heard Passage and eternal I though damn yeah, its a space scifi feel and the vocals felt like some alien God or something that sits on a throne somewhere out in space and I LOVE IT!!!! So I'm having a hard time with this album, please don't move away from what I have come to love PLEASE!!!!

[silentnoise74]

"the vocals felt like some alien God or something that sits on a throne somewhere out in space "

YHEA! that's exactly the image that came to my mind too!

[666frombeyond666]

response to all on here , first of all how the hell is this back to samael's roots? (medieval prophecy worship him , blood ritual )!! this sounds nothing like those albums! i grew up on this band ..if any of you have not heard those 3 albums i stated above then you have no valid opinion on samael ..for f$@%^ sake they should of let the name samael go when they started this industrial garbage ..not that they dont do that type of music good its not samael none of you listen to old black metal

[FirstMetalHamster]

I like this album, it's so damn full of power.

[Slyvr18]

Eh, I prefer their other industrial type stuff. This just sounds too crowded with too much distortion. You can barely hear the riffs underneath all the distorted noise

[adamb719]

maybe im just being fickle, but this album is just as bad as its rep. i try to enjoy it, but listening to it is actually work. you have to weed through the layers of noise, the synth and lead vox are completely drowned out of the mix. the music itself is formulaic and uninspired...ill keep tryin but theres nothing that sticks.

you cant say that about samael's first 4.

[EIRICHRED]

Definitivamente e nuevamente Black metal, pero malisimo, maximo usaron tres acordes en la grabacion del album..... les esta haciendo dag;o el paso del tiempo

[darksaga80]

I have to say I started listening to this album a lot more recently and it's really growing on me.

I also realized this is the blistering style SAMAEL has been missing over the past few albums. I now appreciate every song on the album.

Complete awesomeness!!

[Kride669]

Amazing! Samael never dissapoints me. I love it when bands make albums that actually differ from one another.

[gosch2001]

GREAT!!!! they are back!!!!!!

[vikernesdead]

que chingon que esta banda le volvio a poner poder a su musica son unos grandes en el black metal sin duda

[Gulnarock]

omfg... this is fucking awesome, the comeback to black metal... hell yeah, HEIL SAMAEL!!!

[chantofeskhaton]

that's sick!!! I'm not a huge fan of them but I know them enough to be surprised by this black metal comeback, since I listened to stuff from almost all their albums. I can't believe they did stuff like Slavocracy and then, this!

[Ocilet440]

although slavocracy the song had the sick keyboards in it

[richardzkb]

this song is one of the best of the new album !!! OMFG !!!

[undertakerro]

at last! ;)

[LP999999999]

they are so great & one of the rare bands who NEVER dissapointed me; Switzerland: you don't have a big scene (like Suomi or Sweden) but SAMAEL is einzigartig - congratulations !

[fyfaenfaenfaenfaen]

*is amaized*

[xMarcxUKx]

omfg.... what a fucking good song. Already on 102 plays on WMP. \m/

[inflameswetrust92]

really awesome

[assofgod88]

it's like they went to the kindergarden again. This is called "regression". Repetitive and primitive

[LP999999999]

and why for god's sake ???

please listen again ... you will find the melody - believe me ... they had just hidden it very good ... better than on the last releases, I appreciate this very much - this is what I always loved on Samel

[TerrorTerje]

how can you call this primitive? listen to all the layers in this song... its way more complex than most stuff on the two previous records

[Batnobbit]

Love this song

[EraOneSamael]

i completely forgot they had a new album out, this is amazing!

[edjuusoftkse6666]

well, Xy the drummer/keyboardist/programmer can't be expected to do everything live

[haidook]

yeah dude this is what am talking about

[darksaga80]

My main problem with them is since Passage the majority of the music is completely programmed.

I can't tell for sure on this album, but the drum tracks sound really programmed which is not good for me, being a former drummer. Also, it takes a LOT away from their live shows.

[Ashizimack]

Samael is always the best !!! I love it!

[PentagramPrayer666]

hmmm... it`s a big suprise to hear something like this from Samael again. But it sounds great.

[Brackhmmarr]

horrible, just noise under-producted

[trukvltwontdie3ghz]

someone doesn't know black metal

[assofgod88]

totally agree.

[orlyithas]

WOW GOOD JOB SAMAEL XD

[Vallfar]

Above is the best album for time Ceremony....I saw Samael on Brutal Assault in Czech Republic last year.Greetings for all metal fans from Poland.

[jydjr2002]

VERY VERY good, Samael always amazes me with what they come out with, what i like is the variety of different genres, ceremony is still they're biggest success in my opinion but this is great.

[anataria]

this IS SAMAEL!!

I appreciate this album soooooooo much...

And also with Reign of light, Solar Soul, even Eternal...

By the way, the album cover's graphic is impressive too, as always.

[Bassimastprime2]

Well, it's better than the last few albums leading up to it, I'll take that. And neo is a faggot.

[brokennick]

its weird for me... i was never a huge fan of their really oldschool black stuff. I adore them circa Eternal. And then find the reign of light era stuff a little too simple poppy-industrial. Solar Soul was odd in that it had all these quite hard oldschool sections and then bits that were just pushing the simple pop hooks too far. Its the bit in the middle I want!

I'd like a whole album of Promised Lands and Supra Karmas...

This will need a bit of digesting before deciding if i like it.

[Carnall1]

Ilumination at the end of the tunnel, revealed a world behind every hell, it's sometime worth staying on your way, keeping the faith strong and straight 'till the next deay, just like a dream...stronger...stranger, just like a dream the strangest, strongest dream, dream keep dreaming...dream...

[Tehstroyer]

Thanks, added to description...

[Carnall1]

Nie ma sprawy:)

[Haemoglobinic]

@Tehstroyer This is actually the fifth track off the album...

[Tehstroyer]

@Haemoglobinic: Yes, but it's the third RELASED track. It was relased on their Myspace before the album came out...

[Carnall1]

Imagination cannot be stopped, faster than the light we reach the top, coordination of thought and will, give us visions that we can almost feel, we can speculate on any conclusion , leading our emotions to any destination, can explorate from every sensation, a world is to be found through transformation, just like a dream...stronger...stranger, just like a dream ...the stranges and stronger dream.

[Gerrit944]

This is not "back to the roots" this just sounds like their drum computer went mad. Vocals sound just flat and digitally distorted and nowhere do i hear the hate and despair of their older songs like "into the pentagram" or "baphomets throne". sad. I liked "passage" a lot by the way. it was a milestone. but this is not.

[Nizzon2]

I have to agree to some extent.

Its like they added blastbeats and BM-speedchugg to simple catchy melodies.

I dont relly like the production either, all washed out.

Not even close to Ceremony of Opposites.

[NeoXF]

And since when the fuck was this supposed to be a "comeback"/clone of the the early albums anyway? Moron.

Fucking dipshits like you guys that think they know everything and have perfect taste in music are begining to get boring.

[Gerrit944]

Vorph himself said in an interview that the album is supposed to be "back to the roots"! Hahaha YOU MORON!

[soultenebrae]

stop doing projection of yourself on others you fucking twat. What do you know about samael. Vorph says that this album was the missing piece between ceremony and passage stupid cunt. Go make some ass to mouth with your mama!

[BraveUlysses01]

Too right.

[gotmayhem]

Wow, its not often that a band goes back to its roots.

Im very proud of them

[edjuusoftkse6666]

i have loved every album they have come out with

[NeoXF]

Me too, tho fuck the satanic shit, they just wanted to be cool like all other "BM" bands at the time... wich was pretty lame...

[LordNothing]

sounds very SAMAEL!!!

[NaamahLilith]

Love new work of Samael.

Samael i back!! \m/_

[Videotubelord]

This year they should tour with dimmu borgir :D

I'm not comparing them to Dimmu, but i like that Samael came back to metal+black metal riffage.

Never stopped listen to Samael and will never do!!! Every major change they done i liked, but last one is best change ever!!!

[evilii]

Man these two songs are kick ass! I love the other stuff too, but like they said they are going back to the roots. And this really is the Samael I first heard!

[exciter1987]

i prefer the music from solar soul,and this song reminds me to another song from them but i'm not sure witch song

[Squeglee]

On the Rise maybe a bit?

[exciter1987]

no not that it was also my firtst thought ;)

[jydjr2002]

SAMAEL IS BACK!

[kkinkead]

definately sounds like something that could have been on passage

[rockodicki]

Black metal riffage once again!!!!!!!!

[kaneeye]

samael are baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

[vorphalack]

It's so funny to me....you go to Samael's site and all the fans of Reign of Light/Solar Soul are losing their minds because of this "change" in direction. Please...old school fans have been WAITING for this return to the darker side for ages, and finally Samael delivered...and with blastbeats to boot, which is definitely a progression for the band. Ceremony will always be the ultimate, imo, but this is the right step. No more Dance-Rammstein, please...

[mot5]

Hypocrites. Both the "kvlt"-fans of the old stuff and the "pop"-fans of later stuff. Samael is amazing, both old and new.

[kissesbloody]

Fucking great song...

[babylon333]

Fantastic.back to the roots :-)))

[brutalictesku]

Damn good! Powerful song.

Samael is back! \,,/

[chlamydius]

WOW :O

that's a very good song and i hope that they will hold their old sound because its lots better then the last 2 a 3 albums

[bluprint79]

Industrial Black Metal ftw! Samael are amazing in every way!

[greeksexlover]

reing of light was more melody that its t darker and faster

[ubeck]

That's what I call "real back to the roots". Now, I have just one wish more. Hope that someday In Flames will do the same thing as Samael:)

[r2sleepio]

Too cool

[ChuckyDoll79]

Bringing back the great sound of "the 2nd wave of black metal (1991-97)" for 2009! Great move! I respect it. :)

[GHoStiSF]

It's not the first released track :P The first was Black Hole at Myspace. After that came Polygames. Both under the "Project name" ABOVE. See the official Samael Forum for more info :)

[hvis]

Samael is First.

New album seems to be awesom.

[MortemCP666]

Nice :)

[volias]

I'm second! fantastic - I knew that samael will back to the roots(re-borned,re-minded,re-d­arkest).. need to be "true"..

i think new album will nervous great!..and of course charismatic \../

[xxMADxxSCIENTISTxx]

Yeah, I am first ;]

Awesome masterpiece - can't wait for their new album :D