Nine years after Hegemony, Swiss extreme metal legends Samael are back. Following their comeback single “Black Matter Manifesto”, the band have unveiled “Hidden Empire,” the second track on their upcoming limited 12″ maxi single vinyl, due April 24, 2026 exclusively via Napalm Records mailorder and the band’s official shop. It’s the first new material from the band in nearly a decade, and it lands with the weight you’d expect.
“Hidden Empire” opens with echoes of Samael’s classic era before shifting into heavier, more industrial territory: dense riffs, mechanical intensity, and the kind of suffocating atmosphere the band have always done better than almost anyone. The band describe the track as nodding to their classic “My Saviour” before evolving into something distinctly its own: heavy, tense, and unrelenting from start to finish. Lyrically, it explores the invisible structures shaping modern life, the systems hiding in plain sight that we’ve long stopped questioning.
Together with “Black Matter Manifesto”, the two tracks form a compact but powerful statement from a band that has nothing left to prove and clearly still has plenty left to say. Formed in 1987 and responsible for genre-reshaping records like Worship Him and Passage, Samael remain among the most important and uncompromising acts extreme metal has ever produced.
The limited vinyl drops April 24. Given the format and the demand, don’t wait on this one.
