Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 02/08/2005
Samael fans had to endure a nearly six-year wait for the band to follow its fifth album, the uneven and opinion-polarizing
Eternal, with 2005's
Reign of Light (eat your hearts out,
Def Leppard!), thereby effectively rendering any objective basis for comparison almost entirely irrelevant. Would the former masters of
industrial black metal recapture the sinister, robotically acetic sheen of their breakthrough 1996 opus,
Passage, or would they continue to pursue their
techno music interests into completely un-metallic realms of
trip-hop? More importantly: does it even matter -- six years being a veritable ice age in modern
rock terms. Well, for the record,
Reign of Light occupies an almost exact middle ground between the aforementioned albums, but perhaps its greatest strength lies not in its musical direction, but in the consistency of its vision, atmosphere, and quality songwriting. OK, so opener
"Moongate" (and, subsequently,
"High Above" and the title track) will probably have forgetful listeners thinking they're hearing Germany's
industrial fetishists
Rammstein. But, as ensuing album highlights like the Eastern melody-laced
"Inch'Allah," the deep space-trekking
"Heliopolis," and the digital death
waltz "On Earth" are paraded before the court,
Samael's personal identity quickly and indubitably reasserts itself. Chief composer and former drummer (now drum and synth programmer)
Xy does push the
electronic envelope with his beats for
"Telepath," but even then never fails to contrast it against brutally scything guitar riffs and malevolent choruses for that dark, demonic feel that's always been
Samael's best-loved trademark. And, although
"Oriental Dawn" and the unusually mellow
"Further" plod along somewhat, there's not much else diverting
Reign of Light from its steady, energetic flow. In sum,
Reign of Light may still not be what aficionados of
Ceremony of Opposites, or even
Passage-era
Samael, would wish to hear, but there's also no way to accuse the band of selling out given its return to more metallic fare -- not to mention vocalist
Vorph's still world's worst, commercially averse rasp of a voice. (
Reign of Light comes enhanced with the promo video for
"Telepath" and a bonus audio track in the form of its remix, simply entitled
"Telepathic.")
~Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide
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