SAMAEL Completes Recording Vocals For Eleventh Studio Album

Swiss industrial metallers SAMAEL have finished recording the vocals for their upcoming eleventh studio album, tentatively due in 2025.

On December 4, SAMAEL guitarist Thomas "Drop" Betrisey took to his Facebook page to share a photo of SAMAEL frontman Michael "Vorph" Locher and drummer Alexandre "Xytras" Locher, along with acclaimed Swedish producer Daniel Bergstrand, and he included the following message: "The legendary Daniel Bergstrand traveled to Switzerland to produce the vocals for the upcoming SAMAEL album. The recording is now complete. New music in 2025! I can confidently say these tracks are outstanding!"

This past July, Vorph was asked by Portugal's Caminhos Metálicos when fans can expect a new studio album from him and his bandmates. He responded: "We're on it. Part of the recording is finished. I did the vocal. Xy's still doing some editing. My original idea was to release at least one song this year, but as I see how it is working now, I think it's gonna be early next year. But we will have one song, at least, released before anything else."

In June 2020, SAMAEL announced the addition of bassist Ales Campanelli to the group's ranks.

A former member of SYBREED, OBSYDIANS and THE ERKONAUTS, Ales had been playing with Betrisey for many years. He was no stranger to the machines-versus-humans music of SAMAEL and had known the band since its early black metal days.

Campanelli made his live debut with SAMAEL as part of Tohuwabohu, a worldwide, pay-what-you-want streaming metal event, in June 2020.

Ales joined SAMAEL as the replacement for Pierre "Zorrac" Carroz (SCARS DIVIDE, HEROD),who had played with the group since July 2018.

Longtime SAMAEL guitarist Marco "Makro" Rivao left the band in April 2018 "to do something different." Bassist Drop has since taken over guitar duties in the group.

SAMAEL's latest album, "Hegemony", was released in October 2017 via Napalm Records.

Photo credit: Johan Vergères