For eight years, the machine was quiet. Not silent—never silent—but its primary forge had cooled. Since the release of 2017’s martial and triumphant ‘Hegemony,’ the Swiss industrial metal architects Samael have toured, celebrated their legacy, and endured a world paused by pestilence, but the creation of new sonic worlds had been a process shrouded in patience and mystery. Now, the silence is broken.

On October 30, 2025, the band unleashed ‘Black Matter Manifesto,’ a singular, potent declaration and the first new studio recording in what feels like an era. Released via their long-term partners at Napalm Records, the track is more than a new song; it is the first signal from a forthcoming album slated for 2026, a calculated shot across the bow of the global metal scene.

In a musical climate saturated with fleeting trends, an eight-year gap between albums is a chasm. For a band like Samael, one of extreme music’s most relentless and chameleonic innovators, it is a period of immense anticipation. The central question, then, is not merely what this new song sounds like, but what it proclaims. What does this new manifesto declare for the future of one of metal’s most enduringly unique entities?

Samael: Paving the Way with ‘Passage’

Before launching into the future, Samael first took a deliberate, significant look into their past. The eight-year gestation period for their new material was punctuated by a crucial act of retrospective consolidation: the release of ‘Passage – Live’ on February 16, 2024.

Recorded during the 25th-anniversary tour for their seminal 1996 album, the live document was far more than a simple anniversary celebration. ‘Passage’ was the album that codified the modern Samael sound, the moment founding brothers Vorph (vocals, guitar) and Xy (keyboards, programming) made the audacious leap from their black metal origins into a new, uncharted territory of industrial and symphonic metal.

Replacing live drums with Xy’s intricate programming was a controversial yet defining move that set them apart from their peers and established the cold, precise, and majestic sonic template they would explore for decades to come.

By touring and releasing a definitive live version of this specific album, the band was performing a kind of creative ritual. It was a reconnection with their most pivotal transformation, a cathartic re-affirmation of their core identity before embarking on a new chapter.

This period of reflection aligns perfectly with frontman Vorph’s description of the new album’s creation. In a March 2025 interview with Chaoszine, he revealed the process was a long and meticulous one, an album that “took us forever” but was given the necessary time to “mature” during the COVID-enforced slowdown.

This protracted timeline also offers a glimpse into the central creative engine of the band: the dynamic between the Locher brothers. Vorph candidly described Xy’s methodical perfectionism, noting that while his brother’s minute adjustments to drum breaks and arrangements might seem minor to an outsider, they are of paramount importance to the composer himself.

This tension—between Xy’s architectural precision and Vorph’s pragmatic drive to “Let’s do it!”—is the force that has guided Samael’s evolution. It explains both the long wait for new material and the certainty that what emerges will be deliberate, layered, and anything but a simple retread of past glories. ‘Black Matter Manifesto’ is the first product of that dynamic, forged in patience and ready for deployment.

Dissecting the ‘Black Matter Manifesto’

So, what of the manifesto itself? The track is a powerful synthesis of Samael’s established strengths, yet it pushes certain elements to the forefront with renewed vigor. The choice of production team is a clear statement of intent.

With mixing handled by Sky van Hoff (known for his work with Rammstein) and mastering by Tony Lindgren (whose credits include Enslaved and Opeth), the band has enlisted artisans of powerful, clear, and dynamic modern metal. The result is not a raw, lo-fi artifact but a polished industrial war machine, built for maximum sonic impact.

Vorph’s promise of a “more guitar-oriented” sound is immediately apparent. While the track is anchored by the signature Samael pulse—the martial, precise rhythms of Xy’s drum programming and the sweeping, cinematic keyboard layers—the guitars of Vorph and Thomas “Drop” Betrisey are undeniably more prominent.

They drive the song with a churning, heavy riffing style that feels directly connected to the muscularity of ‘Hegemony’ but with an added layer of grit and aggression. It is the sound of the machine’s metallic teeth being sharpened.

The song’s conceptual direction, based on available fragments, points towards a continued evolution away from the occultism of their early days into a fascinating hybrid of Gnostic philosophy and science fiction. The subject matter bridges cosmology and biotechnology with esoteric concepts of hidden knowledge and demiurgic creation—topics not found in traditional black metal.

This is a band using the vocabulary of science and mysticism to comment on control, creation, and the hidden forces that shape existence. The title is no mere flourish; it is a public declaration of a worldview, a mission statement for this new era.

A Trajectory Formed in Fire and Circuits

The weight of this new declaration is rooted in the path Samael has walked. Formed in 1987 in the Swiss town of Sion, Vorph and Xy were true pioneers of black metal’s second wave.

Albums like ‘Worship Him’ (1991) and ‘Blood Ritual’ (1992) were raw, primal, and foundational texts of the burgeoning genre, helping to define its sound alongside their Scandinavian counterparts. But where many of their peers dug deeper into the frostbitten soil of black metal purity, Samael chose to evolve.

The turning point came with 1994’s ‘Ceremony of Opposites,’ which introduced keyboards and a more structured, rhythmic approach. This was the prelude to the great schism of 1996’s ‘Passage,’ where the band fully embraced the drum machine and Xy moved to keyboards, creating a sound that was at once symphonic, industrial, and utterly unique.

This move was an act of heresy for many purists at the time, but it was a conscious artistic decision that allowed Xy to become the sole architect of the band’s complex, orchestral soundscapes. It was a choice that defined their path, positioning them not as followers of a scene, but as the creators of their own.

This history of bold, unconventional choices is deeply intertwined with their Swiss identity. The national character is often associated with precision, craftsmanship, and a certain cool detachment—qualities embodied by bands like the legendary Celtic Frost and the technical thrash masters Coroner. In this context, Samael’s most controversial element—the drum machine—can be seen as the ultimate expression of this ethos. It is perfectly precise, untiringly complex, and inhumanly cold.

Titans Among Titans in the 2026 Scene

After years of meticulous studio work, Samael is set to re-emerge onto the world stage in 2026 with a series of high-profile festival appearances that speak volumes about their current standing. These are not random bookings; they are a strategic deployment of the band’s dual identity as both revered progenitors and contemporary innovators. An examination of two key dates reveals a band masterfully curating its own history in real time.

On March 28, 2026, Samael will perform at the Braincrusher In Hell Festival in Germany. Crucially, they are billed to play an “old-school-set.” This is a direct acknowledgment of their foundational period, a promise to conjure the raw, dark energy of their first three albums for a fanbase that still reveres that era.

Just one week later, on April 4, 2026, they will take the stage at the legendary Inferno Festival in Oslo, Norway. Here, they share a bill with a pantheon of extreme metal royalty, including Mayhem, Deicide, and Enslaved. At Inferno Festival, they will present their contemporary face, unleashing new material alongside the industrial anthems that have defined their modern era.

This deliberate duality is a rare and powerful statement. Many established acts are either trapped by their past or forced to disown it. Samael is doing neither. They are embracing their entire history, treating their black metal roots and their industrial evolution as two distinct, equally valid facets of their identity.

This strategy allows them to satisfy the demand for their classic material without compromising the forward momentum of the main Samael entity. It is a masterful act of artistic integrity and brand management, proving they are not a nostalgia act, but a living, breathing entity that is still actively writing its next chapter.

A New Hegemony on the Horizon

‘Black Matter Manifesto’ is far more than a new single after a long wait. It is the carefully calibrated opening salvo of Samael’s next campaign. It is the product of a band that has used a long silence not to rest, but to reflect, recalibrate, and meticulously construct their next evolution. It embodies a confident mastery over a complex and multifaceted identity, honoring a history in primal black metal while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of their industrial-symphonic machine.

The track’s blend of renewed guitar aggression, polished production, and philosophically dense lyricism sets an imposing stage for the full-length album promised for 2026. It hints at a new hegemony—not one of dominance over a scene they helped build, but of complete and total command over their own unique artistic vision. After eight years of quiet recalibration, the Swiss machine has been refueled and reawakened. The manifesto has been declared, and the metal world is officially on notice.

As Samael continues to bridge their primal black metal roots with their modern industrial precision, which facets of their sound do you find most essential to their identity, and what do you hope to hear explored on the full 2026 album?