Samael continue to evolve further and further away from their death metal origins with the release of this, their third album, 1994's Ceremony of Opposites. Though his lyrics remain largely preoccupied with Satanism and the occult, singer/guitarist Vorph deserves praise for actually enunciating them clearly. Underlying keyboard melodies have also been added to the mix, helping to expand the band's musical palette with eerie atmospherics. Though they seem tentative about these experiments on the first few tracks ("Celebration of the Fourth" and "Mask of the Red Death"), the band grows bolder as the album progresses, finding the perfect balance on "Flagellation," a veritable blueprint for their next album Passage.

The title notwithstanding, this debut from the former Faithless singer is pretty angelic-sounding stuff. You're bound to think of Sin�ad O'Connor, but the comparison is as misleading as it is inevitable. Granted, Dido's ethereal vocals here frequently recall O'Connor; but Dido's...