(Photo by Cyril Perregaux) The Swiss industrial black metal act Samael have released the gothic and piano driven single “Moonskin” via Napalm Records. The single is taken from the band’s upcoming live album, “Passage – Live”, out on February 16. You can view the lyric video below.

Vorph explains: “We were repeatedly asked to release this song as a standalone single around the time of the album’s release. So, a quarter of a century later, we decided to put it in the spotlight with the release of Passage – Live.”

About the live album

The live record was recorded during a sold-out concert in Krakow on the last day of the European leg of the “Passage 25th Anniversary Tour. Vorph comments: “The blend of metal, industrial and electronica that has been our trademark for almost three decades began with Passage. It’s almost ground zero for us, and we’re delighted to offer these songs a fresh approach and bring this album to life for our long-standing audience as well as those who have discovered the band recently.”

“Passage” is the fourth album by Swiss industrial metal band Samael, released on 19 August 1996 through Century Media. “Passage – Live” will be available in the following formats:

• 1LP gatefold marbled red/white & 20 page booklet (Napalm mail order only, limited to 300)
• 1LP gatefold black & 20 page booklet
• 6 page digipack & 56 page booklet in a slipcase
• Digital album

Samael live 2024

• 22.02.24 PL – Kraków / Kamienna 12
• 23.02.24 PL – Wroclaw / Zaklete Rewiry
• 24.02.24 PL – Gdansk / B90
• 25.02.24 PL – Warsaw / Progresja
• 09.03.24 JPN – Tokyo / Reny Alpha Akabane
• 10.03.24 JPN – Osaka / Shinsaibashi Drop
• 02.05.24 NO – Kopervik / Karmøygeddon Metal Festival 2024
• 03.08.24 PRT – Bagos / Vagos Metal Fest 2024
• 21.09.24 TR – Istanbul / Bosphorus Metal Fest

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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By the end of 2021 Mexican formation Sodomy Down The Cross unleashed the gfull length album “Sodomy Down The Cross”. The album was released by Insane Records revealing a powerful and enraged Dark-Electro format. The band introduced their work as ‘Reborn from the ruins of a country consumed by violence where every day crime steals the front pages of the main national newspapers, where people live in fear of being riddled with bullets, where the sound of bullets becomes in the usual aural landscape inside and outside the big cities Sodomy Down The Cross explores through a new sound the reverberation of constant fury and aggression in a corrupt society.’ This is a production I highly recommend to all lovers of great Dark-Electro music. I asked a few questions to ‘BlackNeyton’ and ‘Ivanov Scylla’.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about the origins of Sodomy Down The Cross? How did the band saw the daylight and what have been the main sources of inspiration?

BlackNeyton: The origins of Sodomy Down The Cross are going back to 2001 at the border between Mexico and the United States, Texas and Tamaulipas to be more exact.

My personal influences that in turn gave life to the project initially were bands like Mysticum, Samael, Limbonic Art, Ulver, Burzum, Arcturus, Satyricon, Marduk, Deicide, Aura Noir, Nocturnal Breed, Morbid Angel, Mayhem etc and of course bands like Wumpscut, Skinny Puppy that allowed me to merge styles. I was looking for a new sound that combined the brutal atmospheres and riffs of Metal with Industrial and rhythmic sounds, with a heartbreaking voice, a theme of incitement to violence, the macabre, obscurantism, evil and thus influence the music to the listener.

Ivanov Scylla: Sodomy Down The Cross serves as an opportunity for me to share that dark vision of the world through music, to generate a catharsis and allow a bit of liberation for the alter ego that we all have inside.

The inspiration comes from my observation of the world and reality that often surpasses fiction and invites us to reflect, to annoy each other and shout at the world with the things that we do not agree with, the things that we continue to allow to happen thanks to the selfishness that becomes like the hydra in our consumerist society. My influences are bands like Tactical Sekt, Aslan Faction, Hocico , Suicide Commando , Skinny Puppy , Ministry etc…

Q: The name of the band definitely has something aggressive and provocative, which also comes back in the lyrical themes of the album “The Dead Live The Living Kill”. What do you try to express and what’s the importance to externalize aggressive topics throughout your music?

BlackNeyton: The name itself is a metaphor that can have the meaning each person wants to give it, the image that each one forms in its mind, perhaps something religious, satanic, worldly, sexual or perverse.

For me personally it reminds me of the story of Genesis 18.20.21 of Sodom and Gomorrah, everything that these cities represent in other cultures, starting from there I imagine music taking that place as a reference but besieging it in the present and future.

Ivanov Scylla: The lyrics are a reflection and a projection of human wickedness, that which causes us to continually stay at war, that which allows us as humans to remain stoic in the face of human pain, all that anger that remains imprisoned every time we see the news and we realize the decadence in which we live, it is a scream of fury!

The aggression in our lyrics is an invitation! To know and investigate what each of the stories we want to tell with our music is about.

Q: What kind of album did you’d in mind when starting the writing of “The Dead Live The Living Kill”? What’s your way of working and what’s the input of each member?

BlackNeyton: From the beginning we thought of making an album with Industrial rhythms and EBM overtones, more urban sounds and gloomy atmospheres, focused on the dancefloor as an experiment to give way to a new sound and new releases to come.

My way of working could be said to be that of any composer, on a day-to-day basis I begin to create sounds and melodies in my mind, which later accompany me, I put together like a puzzle and you focus on them in the studio until you create and polish what you imagine. There are sessions of 6 hours per day, non-connective, but most of the composition is mental, I travel a lot and my team always accompanies me, that is my case. I’m in charge of music production.

Ivanov Scylla: Definitely something Industrial!! There is no aspect that represents technological evolution and social involution as much as Industrial music, the automatism of the roar and the creak of the machines, mixed with harmonies, melodies and dark atmospheres, the human part of the band.

I try to contribute in the vocals, lyrics and visuals, everything that the musical part of Sodomy Down The Cross projects to me. It is an intense conversation between the rhythmic and melodic sequences, with the lyrics in each of the songs, my job is to achieve that our visions merge to make the message of the band unify, to enter the same journey.

Q: What elements of the album make you proud and what are the elements you would like to improve?

BlackNeyton: The songs give me a good feeling which makes the music more expressive. It creates emotion and allows you to escape from reality. We try to do something different than the standards so we experiment with other styles. The response of the people has been surprising in such a short lapse of time.

Artem from Sleetgrout mastered the album and did a great job. He managed to give quality and strength to the sounds. His work was very professional and got my my respect.

The improvements like new rhythms and more elaborated atmosphere will be heard at the next album which we are working on.

Ivanovscylla: I love listening to the album over and over again and never got a bored feeling. It makes me think that there is something special and addictive coming through the music.  I can’t help it but I move, dunk, sing… so every time I can it feels exciting to rediscover the album again.

If there was something that I wanted to improve, maybe it would be personal. Sometimes it is difficult to deal with that alter ego that we constantly talk about in our songs and let him allow us to work in peace haha it is a constant internal struggle, the point will be to agree more with us ourselves to be able to express everything we still can, through music.

Q: I noticed there’s a lyrical clip for the song “Die Fünfte Sonne”, which I think is not exactly the most representative song for this aggressive album, but it also is the opening track. Why did you make a clip of this song and what’s the importance of a debut track?

Blackneyton: “Die Fünfte Sonne” is a song that tells a story about our culture. We are part of that ‘Preshispanica Aztec, Mayan, Olmec’ culture. We see it everywhere, we live it, eat it and breathe it, it flows in  our blood and spirit. We wanted to tell the story of the fifth sun, the story of a new beginning. People who know that story will understand the clip as it is a journey, which we were looking for to share.

Ivanov Scylla: “Die Fünfte Sonne” is the door that allows us to enter our musical journey, we try to tell a story about our traditions, our past, one that is often unknown even to our own society that allows us to illustrate how life acts in a cyclical way; create and destroy , remember and forget. It is our metaphorical way of creating a bridge between albums (a new beginning).

Q: The album has been released during the ongoing pandemic so I can imagine it’s not an easy thing considering aspects as promotion and live shows. How do you manage this situation and what are the further plans about shows, remixes, releases etc?

BlackNeyton: The theme of the show, which is something that interests us in the future, as soon as conditions allow us. Without a doubt, we will enjoy that energy that is felt in the live shows, but at this moment our priority is to compose music.

It was because of the pandemic that Sodomy Down The Cross began to work on new music and become interested in new projects. This was possible thanks to meeting interesting and talented people like Vladimir Mironov, who introduced us to Evgeniy Fesslav Vorozheykin from Insane Records, who is a very  professional and good friend.

Insane Records is a very good label doing a professional job. We we are already working on remixes and very soon on the next album.

Ivanov Scylla: The pandemic has reduced on a large scale the way in which society relates and we are not the exception, but in pandemic times we have found new ways of working, of conversing and of meeting again musically, it has not been easy by any means, but we will focus our batteries on new releases, on the visual accompaniment of our music, and continue doing what we like. Sodomy Down The Cross is our revulsive, our way of liberating, our way of putting society in front of a mirror to realize how terrific it can be.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

How many of you knew that Mortiis aka Håvard Ellefsen had a fanzine from 1990-1992? Ellefsen has now teamed up with Cult Never Dies (who also published the Mortiis book “Secrets Of My Kingdom”) to reissue the two issues put out back in 1991 and 1992.

The reissued fanzine issues come as a hardback titled “Z.A.S.T. Zine Anthology 1990-1992” holding over 130 large format (A4) pages. For those who wonder, Z.A.S.T. stands for the delicate title of ‘Zombie Anal Sex Terror’. Total oldschool cut and paste fanzine capturing the vibe of the time.

This is the fifth book in the Underground Archives series out via Cult Never Dies and can be ordered right here.

Includes interviews with: Grave, Blood, Samael, Carcass, Beherit, Masacre, Abruptum, Mortician, Cathedral, Varathron, Sarcófago, Unleashed, Carbonized, Agothocles, Phlegathon, Old Funeral, Nocturnus, Thyabhorrent, Bolt Thrower, Shub Niggurath, Cannibal Corpse, Disembowelment, Sadistik Exekution, Necrophiliac, Revenant, Satanic Death, Baphomet, Pyathrosis, Transgressor, Disgrace, Disharmonic Orchestra, Toxodead, Pungent Stench, Cemetary, Necrofist and more plus reviews, articles and a new interview with Mortiis from 2021.

Here’s a sample of what to expect.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Electro-pop.

Background/Info: Adam Radziszewski and Wojciech Jarzębak is the Polish duo hiding behind Uncarnate. Nearly four years after their debut mini-album “Weak Protein Life” they’re back again unleashing six new songs plus two remixes.

Content: The debut work of Uncarnate was clearly electro-pop driven, but still revealing some minimalism in the production and a few harder EBM elements. “Reality Breakdown” is more ‘classical’ electro-pop like. It’s a sweet and melodic production with a few harder (EBM-inspired again) and darker passages. Singer Wojciech Jarzębak has a rather charismatic voice.

Remixes have been done by Deaf and Exemia.  

+ + + : There’s a considerable evolution in the different aspects of the production. The sound became more ‘classical’-like, but the composition is more elaborate. The songs are simple, but efficient. And here again I prefer the harder touch running through the body-pop driven “Deep Green”. I also have to say a word about the cool and more club-orientated remix of “Samael” by Mexican producer Exemia. Last, but not least the artwork (digipak) of this album is sober, but great!

– – – : Uncarnate doesn’t innovate at any single moment. It’s a fully enjoyable piece of music without ‘hits’ and that’s probably what this band is missing the most.

Conclusion: It’s not an easy thing to distinguish yourself at the endless universe of electro-pop music. “Reality Breakdown” is a pleasant listen, but without major surprises.

Best songs: “Deep Green”, “Samael – Exemia Remix”, “Dragon Eel”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: http://uncarnate.org / www.facebook.com/uncarnate

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

The fine dark electropop act Uncarnate returns with a brand new video for the track “Samael”. The clip above promotes the new mini-album “Reality Breakdown” which you can check out below on Bandcamp.

Here’s what Adam Radziszewski says about the video: “It tells a story which starts in a lab and ends in the woods at night. It’s not clear whether the musicians really meet Herne the Hunter, an elder forest ghost, or if this was nothing but tripping after the consumption of the primeval psychoactive substance just resynthesized from a plant.”

Bio

You will probably remember this fine band as they have been featured on 2 of our Face The Beat compilations. This Polish duo combines darkwave aesthetics, avant-pop and dance beats. Uncarnate draws inspiration from Scandinavian synthpop, Polish post-punk and Western European electro-industrial. Their newly released mini-album “Reality Breakdown” presents a cleaner, softer and deeper sound than their first “Weak Protein Life” EP.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com