Metalheads are uptight. They get flustered when outsiders shun their music, believing it to be mindless noise, as it's often stereotyped, and throw around accusations of closed-mindedness. Yet when the tables turn, and they're asked to listen to something from outside the realm of metal, they are often very quick to jump to conclusions, usually saying something involving the word 'gay'. And God help the bands that start out metal, then move on to explore other genres. They flat-out get crucified by these people.

Which brings us to Samael. This band started out in the late 80s playing black metal that was influenced primarily by Venom, Hellhammer and Sarcofago. It was primitive, it was noisy, it was a KVLTist's wet dream, basically. The 1990 debut Worship Him saw them clean things up a bit, playing their instruments tightly and proficiently, and using a production that was very clear by black metal standards. Still, the album was effectively dark and simplistic enough to be one of the early cult black metal classics. The next album, 1992's Blood Ritual continued along the same lines, but incorporating more symphonic synthesizers [oh no! NO LONGER KVLT!]

Then in 1994, Ceremony of Opposites came out and things started changing. Samael had gone very heavy on the synths, and the entire album had a clinical, mechanical quality to it that reminded many of the industrial genre. It was still evil as fuck, and inarguably black metal, but it was black metal as it hadn't ever been done before. 2 more years, and the band would totally abandon black metal... another 2 and you could begin questioning whether they were metal at all anymore. Of course, by the time Eternal dropped in 1999, Samael had alienated a good chunk of its uptight metalhead fan base. Those who stuck around, though, were treated to one solid industrial record.

It took three years for Samael to complete their next record, and another year and a half to find a label that would release it. The wait was worth it. Sure, Reign of Light isn't a return to the Samael sound of 10 years ago, but then again, anyone who expected it to be is a moron. What it is a continuation of the experimental, electronically-driven sound from the previous two LPs, but this time the emphasis on incorporating exotic and diverse tones into the music is much heavier. A number of these songs contain a very prominent Eastern vibe, especially ‘Inch'Allah’, ‘Oriental Dawn’ and ‘Heliopolis’.

Also setting Reign of Light apart from its immediate predecessor is the fact that the majority of the melodies on this record are created with guitars, rather than synths. In no way does this mean that the band has gone back to being metal, but it does make for an overall more interesting listen than Eternal was. And again, the common thread that binds all Samael albums is the overall quality of the songwriting, and Reign of Light doesn't disappoint in this regard, offering both consistency and variety. It's a great album and will surely impress the majority of those with open minds.