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Rating: The little-known Samael, a Swiss band, would require a whole encyclopedia to be fully and properly described. All the pieces in their discography, starting from the seminal and violent "Worship Him," "Blood Ritual," and especially "Ceremony of Opposites," are each the antithesis of the next, and it's no joke.
Labeled as the eternal "bad guys" and "blasphemous" due to their catacomb-like and suffocating attitude toward Black Metal music, with this "Passage," they indeed found themselves making a "passage" in the true sense of the word, between their origins and the future contaminations that would culminate in the massive and praised "Reign of Light," of which this album already allows one to breathe in deeply the sick, claustrophobic, evil, and hopeless atmospheres of the Samael project.
In short, the result is quite astonishing. Samael has been one of the few bands of all time to evolve their sound without selling out too much but instead making it darker and increasingly extreme, while not showing it overtly, nor allowing it to seep clearly into the granite grooves of this work which, according to the author, is undoubtedly a theatrical example and never lacking in ideas when it comes to the sensations and negative vibrations it emanates.
Listening to it, one immediately feels uneasy, without necessarily being attacked by a wall of sound and violence for its own sake. None of this: Samael are perfidious and atrocious, but they do it with great class and extraordinary compositional flair, much like, to use an antiphon, the early Slasher Movies of the '80s where there was very little blood but all the characters, all the shots were permeated by that sick and frightening feeling that managed to bewilder so effectively.
Even the choice of the evolutionary path that Samael embarked upon (the "Industrial" one, just to clarify) lends itself well to the intent they set, therefore.
Impress and procrastinate without making it obvious, but instead enveloping it all in daring and synchronized sound parts that move in a fluctuating manner between technological nightmares and formless white lights of the operating room and deep, dizzying starry cosmogonies, landscapes violated by the cold moonlight and cries and sufferings and boundless anger, which dangerously slither through these eleven songs, to be listened to compulsory at night, indoors, perhaps in the dark, maybe reading some H. P. Lovecraft story (which, incidentally, is also a great source of inspiration for the band itself).
And you will have no escape.
You will understand it right from the first track "Rain", with its rock-solid and systematic guitar riffs giving way, though not imploding over them, to keyboards that instead of lightening the atmosphere, make it darker and as black as pitch. I say it with all sincerity, even if the rest of this album were discardable, it would still deserve to be purchased solely for this song.
The drum machine must have been programmed by someone accustomed to working with a crusher, so powerful and visceral it is, Vorphalack's voice seems to intone evocations to some deity from the universal chaos, Xytras's guitar strikes blow after blow, indifferent to the sonic oppression and desolate icy land it drags behind, and the whole musical section in general ignites with a searing yet icy fire, which, as you close your eyes, violently flings the listener into never-imagined purgatories, though perceivable nevertheless.
Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, there isn't just one valid and engaging track; rather, all, with their different aspects, are of the highest and most elegant level; and this wouldn't be a review of an album destined to make the history of sonic contamination if I didn't at least mention "Angel's Deceit", "Jupiterian Vibe", and "Liquid Soul Dimension". But it's just for the sake of information that I mention them since the material, I reiterate, has an impressive and enormously captivating depth in its entirety.
I can speak in a representative manner, and I can tell you about the caustic atmospheres that, for example, "Jupiterian Vibe" evokes, with its tribal attack and the clarity of its images then, or the inhuman precision with which "The Ones Who Came Before" is executed, or the melodic and growling airiness of "Moonskin", or, finally, the frightened and annihilated flight of the predestined victim, in the moonlight, who runs terrified and pursued by the serial killer of the moment, as can clearly and magnificently be perceived in "A Man in Your Head". I could tell you many other things, but the encyclopedia is tedious to read, so I can only advise you to acquire this gem, listen to it for a while, set it aside, listen to something else that comes close to it, and then pick it up again, if only to humble at least a thousand other bands, all busy thinking they are "evil" and "blasphemous," but who do not have even a millionth of the genius, insight, complexity of the lyrics, and technical skills of Samael.
Hell is no longer at the gates.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Rain (04:01)
Let it rain a day, a week, a year
Let it rain a thousand years a day
That's the divine answer to all the shed tears
That's the cyclic flood well known by those who know
One drop for every broken dream
and one for every conceived plan
Our seeds sown larger
Our roots will go deeper
Our trees will grow higher and now we wait the rain
Let cry the skies to cleanse the souls
Let fall the seas to wash the pain away
That's the final run to the New Age
That's the first step beyond the threshold of this world
One drop for every broken dream
and one for every conceived plan
Our seeds sown larger
Our roots will go deeper
Our trees will grow higher and now we call the rain
Here rings a warning
A day of wrath
for all the days of war
A storm of fury
to calm the hunger left
Our seeds sown larger
Our roots will go deeper
Our trees will grow higher and now we bring the rain
Our seeds - larger
Our roots - deeper
Our trees - higher and we - stronger
03 Angel's Decay (03:37)
You Know My Friend
I've Been Walking On A Really Strange Path Lately
I'm So Glad You Were Not There
To See My Fall, To See Me Passning On
My Wound So Deep
My Veins Open Wide
Letting Flow My Distress
Letting Flow My Requests
Listen My Friend
As No One Wanted To Hear I'm Telling You Now
So Weak Was My Hope
So Cold The World Around
So Strong The Calls
My Pain Invited Echoes To My Pain Anguish
Coiled In The Gut Like A Starving Worm
Fallen, Between...
I Slide Down The Hole At The Center Of My Soul
I've Given Up, I've Given Up, Larvae Rots
For I Let The Angel Rise
04 My Saviour (04:09)
So small in my greatness
I am the one who never wanted to be
so great in my smallness
I am the one who knows he is not
Around and inside, I am everywhere
ruling my mind, I am made of power
started down below, but now
going higher and higher and higher
from one to ten, 慶ause ten is one and
one thousand million hearts beating under my skin
I am the word which means every word
I am the truth hidden behind every lie
Started down below but now
going higher and higher and higher
I抦 the beginning, I抦 the end
I am the alpha, I am the omega
one thousand million hearts beating under my skin
I am the sword which leads every sword
I am the path which contains every path
I am immortal, I am glorious
I am supreme, I am my saviour
05 Jupiterian Vibe (03:23)
Move With The Storm, With The Wind, With The Flood
Get Down, Rise Up, Hold On To The Vibe
Move To The Left, To The Right, Attraction
The Floor We Dance On Is The Firmament Of Our Eyes
Creation Transcends Creator
Yes Is The Word To Everything
To Pain, To Torture, To War And Destruction
Choose, Make Up Your Mind Before After Is No More
Time Stops While Another Time Is Coming
The Same Leads Back To The Same
"Present Is The Time Including All Times
Each Second Is Eternity As Eternity Is Now
And Now Is Forever..."
Yes Is The Word To Everything
To Liberty, To Sweetness, To Peace And Construction
Move With The Stars, With The Wave And With Us
Dance To The Thunder Beats, Feel It All Around
Jupiterian Vibe
Move With The Storm, With The Wind, With The Flood
Move With The Stars, With The Wave Amd With Us
06 The Ones Who Came Before (03:42)
Through Ages, Through History
Through Civilizations, Through Societies
Taking Man As A House
We've Traveled A Long Long Way To Be Here Now
Back Then, We Left Our Virtual Land
To Come Down On The Electric Field
Of Chosen Human Minds
Where We Unite For Best Or The Worst
We're The Ones Who Came Before
And The One You Kneel Before
For We're Those Who Are No More
We Cannot Be Understood
As We Are Understanding
Guided By The Wind, We Come To Your Place
Reading Your Wishes And Hidden Desires
Dressing Your Dreams Of Colors And Sounds
Beware Of Yourself, 'Cause You'll Get What You Want
We're The Ones Who Came Before
And The One You Kneel Before
For We're Those Who Are No More
07 Liquid Soul Dimension (03:42)
Far From My Kingdom
Golden Dreams, Tranquil Peace
Far From Me, Pornographic Smiles
Far Is Your World
Lost In A Sea Of Nothingness
A Passed Utopia, A Banished Lie
Land, Of Infinite Spaces
Suns, Of Interior Lights
Dances Of The Absurd And The Real
Liquid Soul Dimension
The Force Is Around And The Force Is Inside
I Swallow The Light And The Light Swallows Me
I Don't Exist Anymore But I Feel As I Am
But I Feel As I Am...
Far Into The Inner Universe
Detached, Free And Submissive
From Up On My Throne
I Command, I Obey
08 Moonskin (03:57)
Enchained to a shadow of the past
he walks the path of life
following the same quest, like a ghost
silly lover, silly romance, how pathetic
constant, permanent, disenchantment
She will be called Moonskin
and she will have the beauty of the marble
hair dancing like flames
around her snow-white shape
Enchained to the Venus spell
he left the reason behind
defiling the garden, forcing the passage
going to the bottom, to steal the end
to shake, to shake death's hand
Once again illusion fades away, once again he is falling
as the milky stream of life goes dying
She was called Moonskin
now she is no more, but a round bright sphere
in his night
floating in a timeless place
Enchained to a shadow of the past
he walks the path of life
carrying that old story like a cross
on which he will, on which he may
nail another star
09 Born Under Saturn (04:18)
Here Or There, Above Or Below
It's Always The Same Force Which Prevails
One Must Be Unreal And Surreal
To Rise Above The Fear Of Isolation
One Must Accept Exclusion
Becoming Stronger To Face Fate
Day After Day
Stone After Stone
From Disillusion To Disillusion
Defeat To Defeat
Escaping Death For Another Death
I've Built A Temple Within Myself
Where On My Knees I Wait The Day
Born Under Saturn
Dechirer Les Cieux
Born Under Saturn
Sur Terre Rapeller Dieu
There Is But A Little Time And The Road Is Still Long
Become Who You Are, Deny Who You Know...
Day After Day
Stone After Stone
From Disillusion To Disillusion
Defeat To Defeat
Escaping Death For Another Death
I've Built A Temple Within Myself
Where On My Knees I Wait The Day
Born Under Saturn
Dechirer Les Cieux
Born Under Saturn
Sur Terre Rapeller Dieu
10 Chosen Race (04:08)
Fall, fall, fall black shroud, veil of ignorance it is a new light we desire fall, fall, fall gods of man, worn masks that our new empire may at last rise up Fight, fight, fight the fear of freedom, you cannot lose fragile are the steps, sharp is the rise Courage, our time has come courage, the time is now Souls of steel no one owns us murderers of oppression, chosen race just choose to be chosen Father, give us today what is needed give it all, Father thy will be done on earth and in the skies for ours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever
11 A Man in Your Head (03:43)
Wake Up!
They Try To Steal The Man In Your Head
Make You Kneel In Front Of Icons
They Took The Place Which Wasn't Theirs
Enslave You With A Power They Don't Have
Don't Need To Be Guided
Their Lambs Become Rams
Tell Them The Universe Hides Inside Us All
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer...
Is It What You Got
Or Is It What They Made
Holy War For Holy Fools
Blessed Are Those Who Break The Rules
Men Drink The Scum Of Rage
At The Lips Of Warrior Priests
What Happened, Happened Again
As No One Gets; You Cannot Win
If Someone Lost
Streams Of Blood Drown Soldiers' Hate
But Mothers' Tears Call Sons' Revenge
Stay Away From The Sectarian And Gregarious
If You Want To Keep The Precious Gift We Share
Be Right To Yourself, Be Your Own Judge
And Know, Non-Resolved Things
Generate Themselves Over And Over...
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