While Scandinavia was under the second wave of black metal, SAMAEL were spreading their own poison in the heart of Europe… unquestionably one of the top five Swiss heavy-music acts ever: pioneers, innovators, iconoclasts who defied authority and stereotype, remained at the summit for decades, and carved out the unmistakable Samael identity.
Led by the Locher brothers, the band started out playing cold, fairly primitive Black Metal. As some of the genre’s torch-bearers (certainly in their homeland), SAMAEL stood out from the very first moment and swiftly rose to become one of the scene’s defining bands. But the musicians always prioritised freedom of expression and artistic growth, so by the mid-90s their sound had shifted into a black/industrial/electro fusion, characterised by pronounced keyboard lines, a mechanised edge, and rhythms driven by a drum machine. This shift enabled SAMAEL to share stages with rock legends such as IGGY POP and none other than NINE INCH NAILS.
In their later work, with the albums ‘Above’ and ‘Lux Mundi’, the band returned to their roots, shaping the foundation of their music with massive guitar parts and reviving the early black-metal sound of their past. Yet on ‘Hegemony’ – the Swiss band’s latest offering – symphonic and industrial tones rose to dominate once more. That’s what SAMAEL is – ever restless, ever experimental, always searching, and keeping the balance between black metal and industrial/electro metal.
