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SAMAEL: "Lux Mundi"           Nuclear Blast

www.samael.info 

www.myspace.com/samael 

Pre-production in Germany with  Waldemar Sorychta (MOONSPELL, LACUNA COIL, TIAMAT, GRIP INC.). 

Recorded in Switzerland, mixed by extreme metal specialist Russ Russell in Kettering, England.

Prophetic  darkness.

Apocalyptically obscure. Apocalyptically sinister. Brutal yet highly refined and elegant. Although very bitter "Lux Mundi" is not destructive. Martial perhaps. Infected by a kind of solemnity. Music and lyrics breath hostile, poisoned air. The new album from legendary  industrial black metallers Samael (since ever proud of the Swiss dark metal scene) is so rancorous to seem maleficent. The background carpet is perfect with clear epic mystic characteristics: its antagonist is the resolute drumming  which puts an incredible dynamism in this haunting atmosphere. Vorph 's vocals impeccable.

At a first listening i've noticed that the album becomes more and more powerful and lively in an evil crescendo track after track till the explosive In Gold We Trust. And as far as i can judge till now, this will become my fav track together with the stunning final "The truth Is marching On", characterized by a blasting intro, and the unmistakable In The Deep, modern yet tribal, with enchanting hooklines.  Another song which i like so much  is Mother Night, a Black metal heavy ballade started by great guitars. Soul Invictus gets a memorable melodic and intense refrain and is, "in toto", a  tight track. In few words: the second half of the album is worth the waiting.  Anyway this doesn't mean that the first tracks are weak or uninteresting. Luxferre is  a strong "ouverture" and the following Let My People Be! is a marked middle tempo with chorus and some classic touch,  and Of War is very pressing ("This is the second time SAMAEL wrote a complete song on the subject of war. 'Valkyries' New Ride' ('Solar Soul') was more or less directly inspired by the ongoing war in Iraq while 'Of War' treats the topic in a general sense"). Pity that these first three songs have, all in all, few movements and seem therefore repetitive and monotone with guitars almost  subjugated by the leaden background. I have the impression that the album, after all, could begin with Antigod and that finds an optimal development with  The Shadow of The Sword where the rhythm speeds up adorned by offensive behavior. 

The album is rich in hidden strokes related to classical music, fact which i appreciate. Indeed "Lux Mundi" is full of layers which stay there in order to be discovered, decoded, perceived. The listeners must do some homework; it's like to read an Umberto Eco book: No concentration, no fun. Nothing is superficial when it's  Samael. Lux Mundi is no exception. Although the title is dealing again with the "theme" light and sun, this is a "black" album not (only) because of  the cover artwork by Sludge drummer Patrick Pidoux or because of musical influences, but because of its extreme mysterious darkness. Prophetic darkness. 

Samael underline that the lyrics of some songs are anti religious or , better said, are against all kinds of monotheism, letting an open window to pagan inserts like in 3/4 song  Pagan Trance or in Soul Invictus (just think of the ancient Roman Sol Invictus , ("Unconquered Sun"), the Sun God of emperor Aurelian and then celebrated on December 25). But sorry if  listening to this music the images that dance before my eyes are of  Blavtskyan nature: Theosophy, Cabbala. Anything  around (the) Black Sun. 

09/10 

dalia di giacomo   29.04.2011

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