Artist: Samael
Title: “Solar Soul” (reissue)
Label: Metal Mind Productions
Release Date: 12/2/2014
Genre: Black/Industrial Metal
Rating: 3.5/5

Originally released in 2007 on Nuclear Blast Records, “Solar Soul” is the seventh album by the Swiss Metal band Samael. The recording was recently re-issued by Metal Mind Productions and now comes in a Digipak holder but features no additional tracks or expanded liner notes. With that being the case my original thoughts on it remain the same and I have restated those views in the review that follows. The edition is limited to 2000 copies so diehards might want to act fast if interested in purchasing.

Samael is nothing if not unpredictable from release to release and while their original sound and style from albums such as “Passage” have been inspirational to groups like Rammstein and Dimmu Borgir, their change to the more Darkwave meets Electronica style we found on “Reign Of Light” could clearly confuse a large portion of their demographic audience. Long considered one of the second wave bands in the Black Metal movement the changes to the Industrial and Technical side would find them a leader in the Industrial Metal genre. “Solar Soul” continues this journey into musical experimentation for the band and for the most part should appeal more to their original fan base as its much heavier that “Reign Of Light”. Another thing about it is while it utilizes the electronic and industrial elements on every track there is also an inherent heaviness and a stomping groove that makes it a very interesting listen. Lead singer/guitarist Vorph seems in good form from the onset of the album as it opens with the title track and the programmed drums and keyboards serve well to set up the mood of the album. I love the chorus in it since it comes across with such majestic power and as you listen to the release on the whole it seems as though many of the songs offer a chorus of this kind. Different yet similar in the fact that they are sure to find the audience singing along with fists raised into the air defiantly. When “Promised Land” begins we see that this is more along the lines of the original Samael as it’s clearly a Metal track albeit with electronically triggered drum tracks. There is more a Gothic flavor happening with the vocals on “Western Ground’s” verse and there is a nice level of atmosphere happening in the background but it is not until the beginning of “On The Rise” do we see the band really pulling out all the stops for a few segments. I would have preferred that they left this as a sweeping thunderous number as opposed to slowing it down and picking up again a couple of times as this one had a lot of the elements that people enjoy in Dimmu Borgir today, and this could have caught their attention more had they left it one style and speed.
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