SAMAEL Discusses New Album

Steve Markowski of Beyond the Dark Horizon recently conducted an interview with frontman Vorph of Swiss industrial metallers SAMAEL. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Beyond The Dark Horizon: You just finished touring the U.S. How did that go for you all?

Vorph: It was definitely great to be back in America, we didn't come for the Reign of Light album and we felt we had something to catch up with. Hearing from so many people that they've been waiting ten, twelve or fifteen years to see a SAMAEL show, kind of reminded us we should come more often to the U.S. We're now looking for more touring overseas in 2009…

Beyond the Dark Horizon: Give us more insight into Above and your plans on it being a virtual metal band.

Vorph: While we put the last touch on the album, we decided it will be a SAMAEL album. After 20 years we've tried to do an album that would represent what SAMAEL is all about and we did Solar Soul. We feel now it is the right time to remember the people where we come from, and that's exactly what Above will do. It is like an enhanced version of our three or four first albums, maybe the missing link between Ceremony of Opposites and Passage. With the Era One project we've tried to work on different influences, [and] with Above we stripped everything down. It is a metal album through and through.

Beyond the Dark Horizon: So you feel SAMAEL will be going back to its roots, in a sense?

Vorph: Above is a little bit of a tribute to our early years as a band and to our first influences. If you listen to our two last albums, you can tell our roots go beyond that but “Above” is a good résumé of what pushed us to start playing music in the first place.