Samael – Above
Nuclear Blast Records
(3/5)
With 8 full length albums and 2 EPs previously released, Samael is back with their eleventh overall release Above! Typically, I’m all in for Black metal bands/albums, but Above didn’t quite hit me as well. The overall album is good, but the drums make it really difficult for me to truly enjoy this album. The two main reasons the drums are such an issue fore me are the excessive use of blast beats, and the overall mix for them. When I listen to Black metal, I like a good mixture of styles in the music as the case is with bands like Dimmu Borgir and Satyricon, but when the drummer puts in a lot of blast beast, it becomes too close to Death metal, in my opinion. Now, that’s not a huge issue since I also listen to bands like Behemoth who has a pretty brutal form of Black metal, but the mix does present a bigger problem. In my opinion, the drums on this album are too loud. This may not sound like a big deal, but when the drum track overpower the other tracks on nearly every song, it makes it hard to listen to everything and truly enjoy the album. Despite these issues, Above still is a great album for Samael fans and general Black metal fans alike. Some of the best tracks on the album include “Black Hole” (Track 2), “Earth Country” (Track 4), and “In There” (Track 7). Of those tracks, “In There” is my favorite, providing more difference from the other tracks. All in all, this is a good album by a great band and it helps keep Black metal a dominant force in the Metal world.
