Samael – “Promised Land”
From the album: Solar Soul

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
After an unforgivably long break in providing your weekly unshitty music fix, the Music That Doesn’t Suck series returns with a relatively new favorite. Well, at least for me. Samael is a band that has been around for quite some time, though I wasn’t introduced to them until fairly recently. From what I can gather, over the past 20 years or so Samael has been updating their style to a more electronic / industrial sound, slowly moving away from their black metal beginnings. I for one enjoy their current sound, so I have no complaints… though I’m sure their fans of old are loosing their shit as most diehard fans of bands going through a genre shift do. Understandable, though ultimately pointless… this album kicks ass.

“Promised Land” and nearly every other track on Solar Soul is tastefully saturated in keyboards and synthesizers. I’m not sure if it what was intended, but the entire album envelops me in a very spacey, sci-fi atmosphere. Singer Vorph’s vocals are deep, gritty and raw yet thankfully understandable. Much like the album’s title-track opener, “Promised Land” is oddly upbeat and catchy, yet is still able to maintain an acceptable level of what we in the highly-acclaimed proffesion of rocking-the-fuck-out call “balls”. I like this song. It makes my inner metalhead happy.

Now again, I haven’t heard anything from Samael aside from this album, so I’m not one to judge how their new tunes fair against anything that came before it. And honestly, I don’t give a shit. Sure, you only like their first two albums. Good. Great. I’ve heard it more times than I care to count and I simply don’t care. For what it’s worth, all other releases aside, Solar Soul is a standout album in the genre Samael now inhabit. Take a listen to the tune above for a taste, and check out the full album for 10 more tasty industrial metal tracks to feast upon.

Official Website: www.samael.info