Samael

Any fans of these guys? I never heard the early black metal albums and really have no interest in them (this due to my lukewarm reaction to BM and the strong anti-Christian stance) but I have and LOVE Passage and Eternal (Passage infinitly more) which came out after vocalist, guitarist, and lyric writer Vorph decided that hateful speech was not the way to go (something I read in an interview with him once). My copy of Passage came with a bonus disc called Xystras (named after keyboardist XY) which contains piano and keyboard versions of the regular songs. The music has a little black metal mixed with some industrial and symphonic music (the drums are programmed but fit the music perfectly). I lost track of these guys after those two but I heard they became less heavy afterwards (though I never heard any of it so I can't say personally). The bonus disc of Passage for me is an awesome and eerie listen, something I like to listen to while resting or sleeping (XY is quite the composer-I hear he has another album under the Samael name that is in the same vein and I'll have to check it out sometime).

Ceremony of Opposites is a masterpiece of minimalist black metal from the early Celtic Frost influence. Other than than that album, I can take em or leave em.

I only care about early SAMAEL and my fave album by the band is WORSHIP HIM. I saw them live ones at a festival, in the late 90s and they were so bad. They didnt play black metal anymore of course and they were playing a very boring gothic influences rock, very bad.

I like their old stuff, never listened to their goth/electronic stuff. Never really appealed to me.

Worship Him, Blood Ritual, & Ceremony of Opposites are fantastic. then they discovered Rammstein, & it was all over.

I like the 1st 3 albums a lot! Ceremony of Opposites is indeed a masterpiece. Worship Him and Blood Ritual are also really good albums. I pretty much lost interest in them after the Rebellion ep.

I discovered them by listening to gothic something or other collection, they were okay, not really into the whole gothic scene besides the death rock/goth band Christian death.

"Into The Pentagram" (the re-recording) is one of the sickest songs I've ever heard. I love it! I actually really like this band's early material, and the latter stuff is decent.

Here's what I don't get.

http://www.myspace.com/above666

Why not just call this Samael and give a nod to the old school stuff?

Cermony of Opposites is a masterpiece. Worship Him and Blood Ritual are OK. The Rebellion ep wasn't bad either. But Ceremony is by far the best thing they ever did.

I have thier first two records and I like them a lot.