Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Innovation is a key word when it comes to Swiss metal experimentalists SAMAEL! What started out with pure and raw black metal, soon evolved into a whole different beast, towards groove-laden dark metal, and afterwards they started incorporating electronic, oriental or world music parts on their music. The band has now returned to the essence and core of SAMAEL. The band’s new album “Lux Mundi” will come out on April 29, 2011, through Nuclear Blast. The result is a pitch black monster boasting epic melodies, cutting riffs and grooves second to none…

Some days ago I had an enjoyable chat with Vorph, SAMAEL‘s vocalist and guitarist. This’s what we talked about…

Hi Vorph, I’m Tarja, welcome to Metal Shock!

Thank-you very much, Tarja!

So, let’s go back to 1987… 24 years ago, how everything started? And how you guys got together?

Well, me and Pat Charvet, my friend, we had tried to form a band at those years with some other people, but that never worked really. So, I asked Pat, if he would agree to join me on this adventure… so we started as a two piece-band, Pat on drums, and me on guitar. We recorded a couple of songs and we made 3 or 4 shows together. But then, my brother, Xy, joined the band to play the keyboards… I remember that day, it was the 14th July ’88, when we did the first rehearsal together, and all that summer we played every day. And by October we entered the Studio to record our first EP “Medieval Prophecy”.

Talking about your brother Xy… how is it to work with him? and how is the relationship, in generally, in the band?

We get along pretty good as a band, I mean, we know each other for a long time. Well, Xy of course I know all my life, haha, but I know well also Mas who joined the band in 1990, when we were recording the first album (Worship Him, 1990). So, we have been together for 20 years now. But you know, we had difficulties to get along with other people, we’ve had a keyboard-player sometimes, and we got another guitar player too, but it didn’t work. But since 2002, when Makro joined the band, we, for the first time, felt to be a 4-pieces-band, and since that day we have a stable lineup.

Btw, the band’s name Samael, where does it come from?

…well well, it was a loooong time ago, 😀 , as a teenager, I was very interested of all kinds of terror-stuff, and I read a lots of book about this topic, and Samael was an interesting name that I found reading books. You know, in some books it was a demon, and in some other books it was an angel. And I thought, “hey wow, this name’s interesting, a kind of weird”… and I liked the way it sounds, too. So it was obvious it became our band’s name.

Talking about your genre… your key word is “Innovation”, in other words, from where your sound started, and to where it has come, so far? …and what can we wait it will be in the future?

Well, about the future we never know, hahah… at the beginning, you know, we were a very formal lineup, the guitar, the bass and the drum, that’s how we started and made the first 2 albums. But even then we had a couple of songs with a keyboards. You know, Xy played the piano already when he was a kid, so he had some knowledge about it. And the keyboard was a great addition to make atmospheric things, and to give a some kind of a mood to the music, not only heaviness, but also some scape, so to speak. And on our 3rd album, “Ceremony of Opposites” (1994), we included the keyboard player, Rodolphe, at those years, as a permanent instrument in the band, and he had in every song a part to play. Actually, when Rodolphe left the band in 1996, it was the biggest change in Samael. Because Xy thought to play the keyboards, instead of drums… you know, we didn’t actually hired a drummer then, because Xy programmed all the drum parts with the drum machine. And that was the most biggest turn out to Samael,  you know, even the way to compose the songs, were all suddenly different, because we started to compose from the rythm and keyboards, and then the guitar on the top, while before it was all the contrary. So the approach in the songwriting became totally different.

Your first full-length “Worship Him” in 1991, and the latest one “Above” in 2009, and in between many other albums… which of these, for you, represents the most significant one? and why?

If we leave out this new album, I’d say “Solar Soul” (2007) which I really love. To my opinion it’s the album that really represents us. The approach was very different in it, and we made it without any outside influences. And this project actually led us to our latest album “Above” in 2009. But Solar Soul was a real statement about us, and who we are. But I do believe that this new album Lux Mundi, is even closer to us and what we are today.

Yeah, let’s talk about “Lux Mundi” which will be released at the end of April…

Yes, Xy had the first ideas for 3 or 4 songs for this new album already in 2007, just right after the release of Solar Soul. Then in 2008, around spring time, we took a break to finish the album “Above” which we then released in early 2009. That in fact gave us more time to work on Lux Mundi. And the thing I like, was the energy we had while working on it, especially when mixing the album. It was the first time we mixed with Russ Russell and we are very happy with the result. It maybe sounds less crystal and clinical than Reign Of Light or Solar Soul, but it’s all more like Samael, really. You know, it’s closer to the sound when we play live.

…well, you have said in one interview that “We’ve stuffed this album with so many things that it feels like we’ve created a black hole.” … it’s quite an interesting parable, please tell us more about this “black hole”…

hahahahahaha, I don’t know exactly what I mean with this. But there’s a lot of “parade” in it, most of the songs are with middle-tempo, we got there some very heavy tracks, and a lot of different elements. You know, we made a short tour at the end of last year, where we presented “AntiGod” and “Soul Invictus”, Antigod was already a single, but “Soul Invictus” we presented to the people for the first time. And the reaction was amazing, and we had a feeling that it kind of erased everything we’ve done before, it was just like “covering” everything. And this is maybe the reason I’ve described it a “black hole”.

The album title “Lux Mundi”, which means “Light of the world”… is it a prophetic name for the whole album? and how you came up to this title?

You know, we kind of like it, it’s taken from the bible, you know… the church supposed to be the light of the world, but it’s pretty much an opposite, because we think that the people are the light of the world. They all got something that could make this world a better place. And this is one of the subjects which’s been developed through the songs of this album, songs like Luxferre, Soul Invictus, of which I spoke before. It’s all about finding the light and power that we have inside of us and do something with it.

The cover art of Lux Mundi is minimal, but very effective, what do you want to tell us with it?

Yeah, the very idea was to have a connection to the title. It’s kind of black-on-black type of cover, and you see the artwork only when you have the light on it. And that’s the main idea of it, if there’s not enough light, you see only a black square somehow. And the title “Lux Mundi”, the light of the world, fits to the idea to reveal the artwork… “more light, better you will see it”. It’s a kind of metaphor and connects the things together in the album.

The album includes 12 songs. while listening to them, and now I’m referring to the “black hole”, I can hear quite many different flavors and veeeery attractive riffs in it, each song provoces me different feelings. How the songs were born and from where you took the topics?

Maybe the main topic of the album is the search of the inner light we’ve got. For example the two songs I mentioned earlier (Luxferre, Soul Invictus), but also “Let My People Be” are of that idea pretty much as well. This song has been taken also from the bible, there the phrase is “Let my people go…” well I think nowadays, as we’re not slaves anymore and we don’t have to go anywhere, but we tend to bound ourselves to certain mainstream ideas… so the idea of this song is to tell: “if you feel a bit different, so just be different!”. Then there’s the third song of the album “Of War”… actually this was the second time I write something about war. The other song “Valkyries’ New Ride” was in the album “Solar Soul”. But somehow I had a feeling I didn’t finished it yet, and that I have more to say about this subject. So, this “Of War” is kind of ultimate song about this topic. Then there’s also something about religion, Mother Night , even if it seems very dark at the beginning, but my idea was getting out of the darkness within the song, and I’m pretty happy with the result, because it’s a very positive song.

How were your studio sessions?  was it hard to find the right and perfects sounds and mixing?

Well, you know, we recorded here in Switzerland, in 3 different places. Some of the stuff has been done in Xy’s home studio, then we did the vocals and bass in another places, and we mixed it in England with Russ Russell. Basically the recording place were the same where we made Solar Soul and Reign Of Light. The studio sessions were good, and as I mentioned earlier, we’re very happy about Russ Russell’s mixing.

Btw, who’s your songwriter?

It’s Xy who does all the music, and I do the lyrics, trying to find my vocal line on it. For me and to my brother, tt took some time to find the right way to collaborate. That’s because the two first albums I did almost all by myself. But I think I’m not so good in songwriting, but I can do better with the lyrics.

What are your expectations about this album?

Well, first of all, I’m looking forward to have a copy of it in my hands lol…that’s always an exiting moment. And then we’ll see… but there are quite many songs that have a good potentiality as live songs. I’m already very exited to play more new songs on some festivals this summer and on the tour we’re gonna do in september.

…so I guess you love to be on stage?

Yeah, personally that was my first motivation to form the band, to play live. But then I’ve learned to enjoy of creating process as well, you know, to be in studio, and writing as well, and making the song grow. They’re two totally different things, and the live act is a more instinctive thing, on stage you just let it go…

And  talking about tour, do you know already which country it’ll hit?

So far, we just try to book the tour dates, and I think our agents have already some dates confirmed, but I haven’t seen any schedules so far. It will be a headlining tour, going through all september, or maybe we’ll start a bit earlier, at the end of august, up till the beginning of october. Of course, we don’t know yet in which countries we’ll play, but I hope we’re gonna have at least one or two concerts also in Italy, like Milan (which is closest to us) and Rome. Let’s see… lol

What are you future plans, besides the tour?

Well, besides the tour we’re gonna make 4 or 5 festivals, not too many, so far. Summer will be pretty much relaxed, ahah, but then we’ll start to prepare us for the tour. In april we’re gonna do probably a video clip, so these are the nearest things we have as plans.

Which song you’re gonna publish first, as video clip?

Well, we’re not yet sure, we’ve changed our minds already a couple of times, hahah.. but so far, we think it’ll be the opening track, Luxferre.

You’re signed on Nuclear Blast… Recently there has been a lots of talks about the future and how the music business will change in next 5 years. But how important you, as a band, see the role of the labels?

Well, effectively you need the labels somehow, because they have the structure to place your album and to distribute it. You may think that in some points there will no longer be CD’s, however I personally don’t think it will happen. You know, even though you’re selling your music through internet platforms, you will need some advertisement to make people know about it. Internet is great, I mean, for plenty of information, but to be noticed there, you just have to need some support, and it has to come from some people who are working for it. And if it’s not a record company, it will still be something, e.g. signing a management for the band, just to make it more visible, through internet and in other ways. So, it’s kind of the same thing. You know, since our “Reign of Light” we actually have our own label, but we just do lisences with it. And this time, as you mentioned, it will be Nuclear Blast for Europe. And we’ll lisence it to Seasons of Mist for America. And what becomes to Switzerland we do not need a label here, you know, we have only the distribution, and we do all the rest by ourselves.

Ok, we’re on our last question… what are your greeting to your fans and to our readers?

Well, I hope they will enjoy of this album as much as we enjoyed doing it. We’re very happy with the result, and I think we hit on “something” with this one. Future will tell, but hope they will at least to give it a try, and if they like it, we’ll waiting for them on the upcoming tour.

Listen Vorph, it was a very pleasant to talk with you, thanks very much! And hope your tour will bring you soon to Italy!

Thanks Tarja, it was my pleasure! See you soon, Take Care! \m/

Please visit: Samael TV
Interview by Tarja Virmakari – Photos @www.samael.info