Sammath – Grebbeberg (2023)

Dutch black metal legends Sammath return with their latest offering Grebbeberg and unlike most bands that have been releasing music for over 25 years, Sammath still maintain the same passion and vigour that they displayed in their earlier years as they continue to strive towards achieving their vision of the perfect black metal album. Following upon the ideas established on Godless Arrogance, Sammath continue to push the envelope within that style but also carefully integrate forgotten elements from older albums such as Strijd to create what is their best release yet.

The production is the sharpest that it’s ever been on a Sammath album. Guitars are clear and sharp, the bass is fully audible and every hit of the drumkit is fully felt yet it all manages to sound natural without sacrificing any grit. The riffs are perfectly audible as the guitarist, Jan Kruitwagen employs a highly distorted yet trebly tone that makes each note understandable without crippling the power of the riffs on display. Ruud Nillesen’s bass covers up for the lack of low end present in the guitars and offers even more power to the riffs as he never diverges too far from the guitar to this album’s greatest benefit. The lack of muddy low end that has became so popular in recent years inherited from black/death variants to create faux heaviness would have weakened the dynamic impact of Grebbeberg. Like many of the more aggressive black metal bands, there is a strong willingness to offer an alternative to the proposed brutality of death metal and Sammath achieve this perfectly by focusing on a sharp and precise sound that conveys the precision and brutality of artillery on the battlefield yet with enough room to portray the chaos of it all.

Wim Van Der Valk’s performance behind the kit drives the songs forwards with his wide variety of patterns and fills that colour these songs. While his style is hyperactive, it never detracts from the composition itself. What is interesting here is how a lot of those fills occur within the riffs themselves and not only during the transitions. Little bursts of interplay between the toms and the kick drums give these riffs added momentum before returning back to the main pattern which stops the drumming from devolving into pseudo free form jazz and the drumming is foundational to how each second of this album feels like it’s constantly driving forwards like a tank. “Murderous Artillery” features an extended drum solo that is accompanied only by samples of explosions that shows to what extent the drumming on Grebbeberg shapes the songs. While the riffs are tremendous, in this particular moment the onus is given to the drums without the song feeling weaker than any of the other guitar dominated pieces on this album.

Vocally, Jan’s voice sounds fuller than it has ever been and instead of guiding the songs like on previous albums or providing an extra layer of noise, here the vocals accentuate the melodic nature of the riffs by focusing on anthemic yet simple rhythms. On “Reichswald” this is used to create the main refrain simply by screaming out the line “Reichswald, forest of death”. exemplifies this perfectly. Rather than long phrases, the simple phrase during the song’s main riff offers an anchor for all the surrounding chaos. Not content to rest on their laurels, that phrase returns multiple times with slight variations to drive the songs forwards. Ruud’s vocal contributions add depth and fullness while providing immense impact throughout the album serving as an exclamation point to certain phrases.

On Grebbeberg, Sammath focus on the idea of black metal that is both extremely aggressive yet at its core highly melodic. There are no riffs here that showcase aggression for the sake of aggression. The title track which is arguably the most vicious piece on this album focuses on rapid yet memorable riffs which represents the album as a microcosm. The band achieve this by completely eschewing raw chromaticism and focusing entirely on short melodic ideas that are then transformed into these high paced tremolo riffs. while the album is centred around the notion of these tremolo riffs, the band know when to slow things down to really highlight the melodies. “Stahl und Feuer” starts off with a slower riff that takes its time to introduce one of the few long melodies here. The band then slowly develop it until arrives at its breaking point before exploding intto the fast riff in the most satisfying way possible though the band do much more than just maintain the pace throughout the rest of the song. A melody appears halfway that completely shifts the song resulting in a journey like experience. “Crushed, shattered and destroyed” as well as “Last Grasp of the Dying” rely heavily on those melodies that shift the entire feel of the song and really show that the essence of Sammath was always about conveying violence through melody. while most bands would attempt to mimic that violence by drawing into the noisy, chaotic and incomprehensible thus creating something that isn’t memorable, Sammath achieve the sensation of war through a much higher level of musicality.

The chord progressions at the heart of the riffs here are for the most part extremely unusual. Straying away from metal completely at times. wide leaps between notes and bizarre scales form these melodies but avoid sounding zany or purposefully weird. “Tot de Laatste Grannaat” features one of these riffs around the first minute as it breaks up the insanity of the previous sections but without allowing the listener to rest as it disorients the listener before going back to one of the fast riffs. The individual riffs each have their own character and during the brief harmonies throughout this album their interaction is truly spectacular. Like Dakrthrone on Soulside Journey a lot of these melodies are completely unpredictable yet always serve a purpose and imbue Grebbeberg with the breath of fresh air that is often lacking in metal.

All in all Sammath have completely renewed their style not by ignoring the best of their previous works but by combining them with newer ideas and not being afraid to experiment. Grebbeberg does not show signs of a band slowing down and trying to capture their prime years for easy sales but a band that is doing everything possible to push not only themselves but their entire genre of black metal forwards. The sharp production yet natural production, the unpredictability of the song structures, the unique yet captivating melodies all point to an album that will be remembered as fully fledged classic of the genre in a few year.