The long wait is over and SAMAEL are back, this time touring Europe in support of their amazing new album Reign Of Light. After a blistering show in London, I caught up with Vorph backstage to discuss the album, their new label Galactic Recordings and what the future holds for these metal pioneers...

Jim: You've played a lot of dates on the Reign Of Light tour, but you're finally near the end and the crowd were happy to see you here in London tonight!
Vorph: I like it, yeah it's nice... This is actually the last show of the tour. We play tomorrow in Switzerland but this is the official end, then we play 5 shows in Germany with Oomph!

Jim: Coming 5 years after Eternal, Reign Of Light was obviously a long time coming for fans. Did you have the new songs written for a long time or did you only start composing relatively recently?
Vorph: No, that was kind of recent. I mean we had ideas before on tape and stuff, but we didn't start working seriously on the new songs until October 2003. So that was like... until the end of the year we were really concentrating on songwriting. Then we have Waldemar Sorychta who did work on previous albums for us - Passage and Eternal. He came to Switzerland for a week and checked the songs together and then we recorded for 3 months in different studios, home studios as well so we have plenty of time to get our ideas down. And then we mixed it in Sweden in June. So pretty much since October last year the only thing we got in our minds was the new album. And straight after the album's out we're on tour, so it was like a non-stop thing.

Jim: After 5 years it was difficult to know what to expect but it seems that on the new album you've managed to include more programming and electronics but produce a harder sound than on Eternal, which was more organic...
Vorph: Yeah I would agree with that - I think it's a good compromise between Passage and Eternal. It sounds more updated, which is what we're about these days.

Jim: Was the harder sound a conscious thing when composing the new material?
Vorph: A little bit, because we wanted to have some more edge with the guitar. We felt like we missed some of the impact on Eternal so we were trying to find the right sound for the new songs and I think it turned out well.

Jim: Reign Of Light has been receiving a lot of favourable reviews, the only bad one I've seen is in the UK's Terrorizer magazine. Were you happy with the finished result?
Vorph: Yeah, I've only seen good reviews except in England but I'm even more happy to play here because they didn't like it! (laughs). But yeah, we are definitely happy. I mean you [as a musician] better be when the album's just out - if you already have some regrets then you didn't do your job the right way I suppose!

Jim: You had a listening session for Reign Of Light in the H.R Giger bar in Switzerland - it must have been amazing! Whose idea was that?
Vorph: Yeah that was nice. We have a friend of ours, who actually happened to meet Giger for a different reason. Then that came back to the band and when were talking about the location for this - we were supposed to do it in Germany first, and then he came up with the idea. I had the chance to meet him [Giger] for the first time prior to the listening session and I was kinda happy coz I'm a big fan.

Jim: I was going to ask if you guys are fans of Giger...
Vorph: Well we all like him but myself especially - I remember having a time when my room was just full of his paintings and things!

Jim: Giger's done a lot of artwork for metal bands: Carcass, Danzig etc. Any chance of SAMAEL using his work in the future? Perhaps his artwork would lead to too many preconceptions?
Vorph: Well those ones that you mentioned are just paintings that he did [previously] and then gave authorisation for the bands to use them. I think he did stuff specifically for Emerson, Lake And Palmer [Brain Salad Surgery] and there were maybe two others that he really worked for. As for doing SAMAEL artwork I don't know - I don't think so. I was really into it back in the days, in '94 we would've loved it. Actually back then I was trying to get in touch with him just to do something really simple for the cover but I didn't get an answer - the wrong place at the wrong time. But I don't think nowadays it'd make so much sense.

Jim: One reason for the long wait between albums has been label problems. Now you're running your own label Galactical Recordings. Is it a lot of work?
Vorph: No because we just license the album out to distributors. It's more about control of production and we don't license it for ever, just for a special period of time and we keep the rights for everything so that's good.

Jim: I guess now that you guys are so busy you're not looking at signing other bands to Galactical any time soon?
Vorph: No, not for the moment. I mean it's so much time and energy and we don't really have these at the moment, we're really focussed on SAMAEL so I don't think so. We never know, for the future it might be an option but nothing worth talking about at the moment.

Jim: And with everything that's gone on, have you learned a lot about the music business?
Vorph: We had to learn a little bit. I mean I wasn't that interested in it - of course not, I just want to play music, that's what every musician wants to do. But at a certain point if you don't take a little time to see what's going on you get fucked. Because other people do these things for you so you gotta be a little bit more clever with your time - you learn from your mistakes and we did!

Jim: Now that the label problems are resolved, is there any news on the Era One and Lesson in Magic #1 projects?
Vorph: Well this was actually Century Media wanting to have more material to fulfil our contract. We didn't have any feeling to start working on a new SAMAEL album and we'd been wanting to do these [other projects] for a long time. So we were like: this is the time, this is the opportunity that will fulfil the contract and will give us the opportunity to try these new things. What we did, they didn't like too much. They thought it wouldn't fit their catalogue at the moment and now they say they might release it next year, it depends. We don't know actually - they own it, they have it, they can do whatever they want.

Jim: A lot of bands often do a live album to fulfil part of their contract - did you consider doing this?
Vorph: That wasn't an option because the contract we signed was for "new" material and so a best of or live album wouldn't count. We did the Black Trip DVD and as for a live CD - I wouldn't say no, but this isn't something we're working on at the moment. Maybe next year, because we've actually talked a bit to Regain about doing a live DVD and if we do it maybe this time we'll have a side of just audio.

Jim: In the mean time you've gained a new member, guitarist Makro. I saw him at last year's With Full Force festival and again tonight - he seems to have fit in well?
Vorph: Yeah that really was a godsend for us you know. We didn't expect it to be this easy because he actually joined the band in 2002 to play festivals and then we asked him to go on tour with us for Eternal. We kind of knew him before then but we weren't really good friends, just meeting each other at gigs and pubs and stuff. He just found his own way, he's smart enough to see how to take his place and we actually click a lot more on a personal level.

Jim: Xy is the main composer of SAMAEL's music. Do Masmiseim, Makro and yourself have much influence on the composition of the songs?
Vorph: Not directly but we talk about it you know? I mean every time we try something we say things like "this would make sense" and Xy tries to satisfy everyone in the band. He'll be like "Ok, I see where we're going, and I'm going to try to make everybody happy with the result". And usually when he comes back with stuff we'll say "yeah, ok" and it's a nice moment.

Jim: Your lyrics often deal with more profound subjects rather than the fantasy or blind Satanism so common in metal. Where do you draw inspiration?
Vorph: Since Eternal I don't have something that I "write" really, I just pick up ideas at the time, collect them and try to see how they fit into the songs. But more or less I listen to the song and what the song is telling me, what's the mood, what's the words coming to my mind first and I try to just let it go and don't think too much about it. Then I correct to make it go a bit more "together" - it's a lot more instinctive than it used to be in the past. I draw inspiration from life in general. I have this philosophy to say that as a human being, when you're touched by something really deeply, you might be sure that there's gonna be other people who have that same feeling. You've got the chance as a songwriter to say it, and say it for others as well you know? You can take the opportunity and go for it...

Jim: You've written so many songs now, are there any that stand out lyrically as having special importance to you, when you perform them live for example?
Vorph: You know it's funny because with time, the same song can change meaning. Because words, they are something you can see from different angles and the same words mean different things at different times. Some songs, for example Baphomet's Throne - I had a certain thing in my mind back in the days when I wrote it, this is different today but it still fits right in. It's like my mind has changed, but I can still relate to the words in a special way.

Jim: Passage was indeed a turning point for SAMAEL, both lyrically and musically. You took a turn away from the purely dark side of things and looked more at ideas of finding one's own path, the power of self...
Vorph: Yeah I think with Ceremony of Opposites, at a certain point we had the feeling like we were at the end of something, like it was a bit of a dead end. 'Cause we could've done this forever you know, we had a feeling of "now we know what it's all about" but I feel like we took the opportunity to go somewhere else and say "ok, this we know about, we can move on", try to elevate ourselves a little bit.

Jim: And your musical influences have obviously changed with time also?
Vorph: Yeah, as I teen I used to listen to only heavy metal, that was my thing, I couldn't put up with anything else. Nowadays I can listen to anything, I don't mind, it just has to fit my mood. I'm kind of versatile...

Jim: One final thought: This interview has a very international feel, I'm an Australian at a gig in London, interviewing a Swiss band for a German fanzine. In On Earth on the new album you mention Sydney and Melbourne - is there any chance of you ever going on tour down in Australia?
Vorph: (Laughs) Nice bridge! Hopefully, hopefully. You know we've been trying to go to Japan for a long time and any time we get a good opportunity with a good offer we'll go there. I mean that would be good to go to Australia and Japan but we are not distributed in Japan at the moment. We've got to check this because that was supposed to be going through Regain but I think they gave up, so we had a special clause that once they give up we can take the responsibility on ourselves. That's the way it is when you've got your own record label, you can fix things.

Jim: Well let's hope you can make it down there sometime soon. Thanks again for your time, and congratulations on Reign Of Light and a great gig tonight!
Vorph: My pleasure, thank you.

12/2004 © Jim Stewart • Samael •