Swiss metal pioneers SAMAEL have released their new album, Lux Mundi, via Nuclear Blast Records. The band are streaming the entire album until May 6th on their official Facebook page.

Lux Mundi contains 12 new original tracks and the following are a few words about each song from the band:

'Luxferre': "Opening track of the album to set the tone musically and lyrically... it was originally called 'More Light!', a reference to Mehr Licht!, which is believed to be the last words pronounced by German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on his dying bed."

'Let My People Be!': "Walking the fine line between anarchy and society while prophesying a new era. Middle tempo track with a haunting chorus."

'Of War': "Musically heavy as heavy can be. This is the second time Samael wrote a complete song on the subject of war. 'Valkyries' New Ride' (Solar Soul) was more or less directly inspired by the ongoing war in Iraq while 'Of War' treats the topic in a general sense."

'Antigod': "Was the first single released on 19th November 2010. It shows the new album’s direction and gives a taste of what's about to come. Lyrically the song is a firm stand against any kind of religion."

'For A Thousand Years': "Heavy middle tempo track which questions our view on immortality. This is actually the full orchestration of the song 'Ten Thousand Years', which appears on the 'Antigod' single."

'The Shadow Of The Sword': "The Quran says “the gates of Paradise are under the shadows of the swords”…This is yet another song against religion and more particularly against monotheist religions, an up-tempo aggressive track with some reminiscence of 'Rain' (Passage) as Waldemar (Sorychta) noticed."

'In The Deep': "One of the most experimental song on the album, tribal rhythms with a very distinctive guitar riff. It is a trip in the depths of the Samael‘s soul."

'Mother Night': "Probably the heaviest ballad ever written… After the power ballads, the progressive ones, the time is right for some ultra heaviness in that genre…"

'Pagan Trance': "Part of the song existed for a long time but we’ve never found a way to complete it until today. It’s a ¾ song just as 'Antigod', but it is more open and somehow more mellow. The lyrics are about connections between eternal feminine and nature."

'In Gold We Trust': "Money, material possessions and success this is the god's trinity to which most lives are sacrificed in the today's world. An up-tempo track with bombastic chorus."

'Soul Invictus': "(Roughly translate in English as Invincible Soul) is a word play with the Sol Invictus used by the Romans. The song has been played during the latest European tour and it soon turn up to be one of the highlight of the set becoming a crowd anthem on the spot."

'The Truth Is Marching On': "The quest for ultimate truth could be a chimera, but it takes a ride on this road to make a man. Musically the song starts with a blast beat faster than anything Samael ever played before - the tension is kept throughout the track and explodes again on few occasions."

Says Vorph about Lux Mundi, "We’ve stuffed this album with so many things that it feels like we’ve created a black hole. We might have come full circle after Solar Soul and Above”and the option for us was to leave Samael behind or to add a new layer to our legacy, we went for the second option. With Lux Mundi we’ve put tar on our path and now we’ll be able to move further.”

Xy states, "Lux Mundi started to take shape in 2007. For almost three years, we have reworked those songs, changed things to bring them to maturity before to enter the pre-production process in 2010. This album can be seen as the achievement of what we started with Ceremony Of Opposites and Passage or as a new start for Samael."

The album, which took almost three years to complete, was recorded this past summer after the band spent a few days in Germany on pre-production with Waldemar Sorychta (GRIP INC., MOONSPELL). The recording took place at two different locations in Switzerland and the mix was done by extreme metal specialist Russ Russell in Kettering, England.