SAMAEL - CEREMONY OF OPPOSITES (1994)

On a red vinyl limited to 100 copies a Century Media reissue from 2018 comes with a 60 x 60 cm poster. This release also includes a CD of the album it's just in some very cheap generic sleeve. They should've put some effort on it or not include it at all in my opinion.

Have already done a post on Ceremony Of Opposites with my old CD copy over on my Instagram. Got this reissue in the same package as Viktoria by Marduk this June so I was extremely busy with that one. Also the newly released Funeral Mist album and the then upcoming Immortal record for weeks (and also work) so it took awhile for me to listen too it properly. Anyway it’s such an amazing album that it deserves another post and also one for the blog.

Remember the time when the video for the excellent song Baphomet’s Throne were being played on Headbanger’s Ball on European MTV. Got completely blown away by this Swiss band just by that song alone.

A friend owned the CD and I borrowed it from him also of course recorded it to a cassette-tape. Got the CD myself some time later because cassettes were a pain in the ass. However essential to bring music with us to play in the 90's, a big brick by today's standard. My so called “portable” CD-player from 1991 was even bigger & heavier and never an option.

I heard Ceremony Of Opposites a few months before I bought both The Somberlain (1993) and In The Nightside Eclipse (1994) in 1994. Even if we called Samael Black Metal (or Dark Metal don't remember clearly?) at that time it wasn’t an album that sparked my deep interest for the genre like the Dissection and Emperor albums did.

Don’t remember seeing or reading an interview with Samael back in those days. Still don’t exactly know how I would describe Ceremony Of Opposites they have all sorts of different influences on it. But who the hell cares? The record is excellent!

Other songs besides the one I already mentioned like Black Trip; Celebration of the Fourth; Son of the Earth; Flagellation etc. are excellent. Recorded with Waldemar Sorychta producer of many great albums by other Century Media bands in the 90’s like Borknagar, Tiamat, Unleashed, Moonspell etc.

The earlier Samael records Worship Him (1991) and Blood Ritual (1992) are both great that I consider to be essential to own. But for me Ceremony Of Opposites will always be my favorite album by the band. After this one many were raving on about their Passage (1996) album but I never cared for that one and lost interest for the band.

However I must admit that I really like the re-recorded version of the song Into The Pentagram on the Rebellion (1995) EP. The original version is found on the debut album Worship Him that was originally released by Osmose Productions. Would say that about 99.9% of the time I usually hate whenever bands re-record their old songs but that one is truly amazing. It sounds like something that could've fitted on this album. The other songs on that EP isn't particularly exciting.

Anyway Ceremony Of Opposites is a must have album in your collection and I’m glad being able to spin it on my record player.