RockMyMonkey.com recently caught up with SAMAEL's Vorph to discuss the band's new album, Solar Soul. The following is a brief excerpt from the interview:

Rock My Monkey: What do you think Solar Soul offers fans that no other industrial metal band does today? What makes Samael unique within industrial metal today?

Vorph: "I think probably one of the biggest difference between us and a lot of other bands is that we started out as a metal band. Then it was around the time in ’96 when we start to work with the drum machine. We started to add different elements, you know, electronic, industrial. We just kept on trying to make our music more and more interesting by just compiling different influences. The fact our roots are from metal, I think that makes a difference. Because a lot of bands that actually play industrial metal, they first started off with the industrial sound, and then eventually come up with some metal influences. So we just worked the other way around."

Rock My Monkey: How do you think the band has progressed since Era One and Lesson In Magic #1?

Vorph: "Well, those two things, they were kind of a different thing. That was more as a project that we did with Xy, but it’s actually a part of the same contract, because we were with Century Media at the time. We asked them to have this release separated, not to involve the Samael name, but as it was part of the same contract, they didn’t want to split this thing into a totally different thing. So the name kind of gets stuck to the project. But this is something that we worked differently. It’s just programming and vocals, mainly. There is no guitar, there is no real instrument played, so it’s pretty different from Solar Soul for example."

Rock My Monkey: So with the Era one and Lesson In Magic One, even though that’s Samael by name, musically and sonically and artistically it’s really a whole different creature?

Vorph: "Yeah. I think so. The whole approach was totally different. I believe we worked on that project and delivered it before we actually released the previous album Reign of Light. It was a time when our guitar player left the band, and we didn’t know exactly of the future of the band would be. It was kind of a weird time. And that’s when we decided to work on this project. Because I had this in mind for a long time, but it was never the right period. We always had something else to do. So at that time it just gave the feeling that it was the perfect moment to try to do something different, and we took that chance."

Go to this location for the complete interview.