Artist: Samael
Title: “Reign Of Light”
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 2/8/2005
Genre: Industrial Black Metal
Rating: 7/10
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.
Track Listing:
1. Moongate
2. Inch’Allah
3. High Above
4. Reign Of Light
5. On Earth
6. Telepath
7. Oriental Dawn
8. As The Sun
9. Further
10. Heliopolis
11. Door Of Celestial Peace
12. Telepathic – bonus track
13. Telepathic – video
Official Web site: www.samael.tv
