Samael – Above (2009)

After their brutal single “Illumination” this album is even a step up from that. Samael is back and with a vengeance since they sound as heavy as in their beginning, but mixing some of their newer stuff as well. The opening track “Under One Flag” blows you away, and it sets the tone for this album.

The drumming here is very fast paced and brutal, even for Samael, and it would blow away many black metal bands as well. I can probably compare it to good old Mysticum. But you can see that while it has some ‘real’ drums it’s heavily helped by a drum machine. But in no way this is bad, since it provides the perfect base for the songs of this album.

The harsh vocals are typical of Vorph, but they sometimes get lost in the mix of the songs. They also seem to have some distortion added to them. The keyboards are not abused on this release but they are present in the songs providing a nice atmosphere to the music. While they are not used too much, they still provide the ‘Samael feeling’ to this album.

The guitar work features a very thick distortion that provides an industrial feeling to the album, but this quickly disappears since the power and intensity of the drumming overcomes all the instruments (and it’s also mixed this way).

I have to say that this album has many things going on at the same time, and it will take the listener a few spins to be able to fully appreciate all of the music of this release. But I have to say that this is what I like about this album the most because it will keep me discovering new things each time I listen to it.

Country: Switzerland