Hegemony By Vorph
Samael resurrected black metal in the early 1990s with the landmark debut «Worship Him», they introduced symphonic black metal in 1994 with the classic «Ceremony of Opposites» and pioneered industrial metal with «Passage» in 1996. Through 30 years of constant musical evolution, the band composed and recorded over 100 originals songs and gave nearly 1000 concerts around the globe. Samael’s latest album “Hegemony” was released in October 2017 via Napalm Records.
‘Hegemony’ took us a few years to complete. We had the skeleton of the album ready in 2013 but Xy took a break to work on a neo-classical album he composed for the city of Sion which was later released under the name ‘Sedunum’. When we came back to the Samael album, every song got reworked and re-arranged, in a way the production has been made twice this time. It is not very pleasant to have to go back to the drawing table when something was done but it is always for the best.
Xy composes all the music, he records every instrument and makes demos on which I later record my vocal lines. We then discuss things together before finalizing the first version of the song. Every song will go through different stages before they finally got recorded for the album.
Patrick Pidoux did the cover of our latest albums. For ‘Hegemony’ we gave him the title and lyrics and he came with the artwork. We made a small adjustment together before we agreed on the final version.
I’m not sure inspiration could be summarized, when we are in a creative process anything can be used to that purpose. Being an artist is a bit like being a receiver and emitter at the same time. We collect, connect, adjust things together in order to create.
What do I believe? I more inclined to see the world through the prism of energy than belief. On a spiritual level we project thoughts and on a physical level, we work to catch up with those thoughts. Dreams are often prophecies to be fulfilled but between the formation of a dream and its realisation, there are often many obstacles to overcome. Somehow I believe in the energy that drives me towards the things I’m in sympathy with.
Interview by Alex Milazzo – Copyright 2018 © Heavy Music Artwork. All rights reserved.
