Samael - Reign of Light

circus_brimstone

Forest: Sold Out
Jul 5, 2003
5,154
13
38
41
Indiana
Samael – Reign of Light
Nuclear Blast Records – February 8th, 2005
By Jason Jordan

samael.jpg


On the rollercoaster that is Samael’s career, Ceremony of Opposites was perhaps the top of the huge hill, whereas outings like Passage and Eternal were midway down. Reign of Light, which sees release in the United States today, is definitely at the bottom of the hill where the excitement has dissipated, and you’re actively looking forward to the next thrill in the form of a twist or turn. Aside from alliteration, Samael have crafted an album that is overwhelmingly boring.

Fact is: the Swiss group isn’t going to win any fans with “Moongate.” It’s a fairly straightforward opener, and there are cool, electronic doodads shooting off now and again; but – overall – it fails to ensnare me. “Inch’ Allah” is slightly better, though certain sections of the aforementioned track sound extremely similar to The Kovenant. “Reign of Light” is atrocious, and conjures images of Rammstein. Come to think of it, the latter seemingly reverberate throughout new Samael. “On Earth,” “Telepath,” and “Oriental Dawn” are basically uninteresting. “As the Sun” witnesses Vorph (guitar, vocals) do some terribly-rendered, a cappella vox. Despite being an optimistic album lyric-wise, it seems as if this has subsequently weakened Reign of Light. I’m not exactly sure if the band lost focus and/or inspiration, but the predictable spacey synthesizers, less-than-a-full-on-growl vocalizations, and lack of differentiation in song structure makes the quartet’s latest full-length a chore rather than a vice.

If you’re at all familiar with the band, you’ll know the records to collect and the records to pass over. To put it bluntly, Reign of Light doesn’t deserve even a sneer. Are Samael – as we know them – dead?

5.5/10

Isolde’s Review of Samael – Reign of Light
Official Samael website
Official Nuclear Blast website