Samael - Blood Ritual
1992 Century Media

Track Listing:
1. Epilogue
2. Beyond The Nothingness
3. Poison Infiltration
4. After The Sepulture
5. Macabre Operetta
6. Blood Ritual
7. Since The Creation
8. With The Gleam Of The Torches
9. Total Concentration
10. Bestial Devastation
11. …Until The Chaos 

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Vorphalack
Guitars:  Vorphalack
Bass:  Masmiseim
Drums:  Xytras
Keyboards:  Xytras

Website:  www.samael.info

Uncle Meat's Rating:  B
Average Album  Rating:  B

Uncle Meat's Review:
I'm still pissed at Century Media to this day.  I picked up "Samael - 1987-1992" (which contains Blood Ritual and Worship Him) and the packaging is not well done.  A little bio, no lyrics or anything.  But a few months later I hear of a Blood Ritual and Worship Him double CD with lyrics, bio and original artwork.  I guess I shouldn't bitch since I managed to score one of the Since The Creation box sets. 

Blood Ritual really knocked me for a loop.  I had been obsessed with Ceremony Of Opposites and Rebellion for a while and when I first heard Blood Ritual, I hated it.  At the time I had expectations that it would sound like the above albums, I guess not even consciously aware that early albums would sound nothing like their later albums.  Interestingly Blood Ritual and Ceremony Of Opposites (and Rebellion) have the same producer:  Waldemar Sorychta. 

Samael, up until Passage, have made minimalist-black metal music.  The vocals growl and grunt but don't screech or become tired.  The guitar just plays riffs.  Mid-paced rock, sounding almost doomy in places.  Not fret board wankery, which, sadly, means few solos.  Straight-ahead drumming. Almost rock-like in it's approach.  No need for blast beats.  The few keyboard passages that appear are a non-issue. 

I'd put this far down on the list of Samael albums to own.  While by no means terrible, Ceremony… is the place to start.  You can always pick this up later.
Uncle Meat's Rating:  B

Also be sure to read:
Samael - Ceremony Of Opposites by Uncle Meat
Samael - Rebellion by Uncle Meat
Samael - Worship Him by Uncle Meat