Schammasch - Triangle

Schammasch return with their third album "Triangle" a triple album, their previous album 2014’s "Contradiction" being a double (imagine their seventh!) Each disc being 33.30 minutes long. I’ve always liked Schammasch, they have always transcended genres and never stuck to tradition. They have always put pushing boundaries and put the atmosphere and feeling above just being another black or death metal band, brutality for example isn’t their priority.

I really liked their previous album "Contradiction". I loved its depth and complexity and I enjoyed how the songs were slow burners and how the album flowed. In all fairness not much has changed on "Triangle" if anything the band has expanded. The band effortlessly sails between the heavy and brutal to the beautiful and ambient.

It’s hard to pick a highlight as the tracks really do flow into each other and the album really does work as one body of work. The songs build up with tension and things speed up and slow down, the album really tells a story and goes on a journey. However things really come to a fantastic climax on disc 2 with 'Metanoia' and 'Above The Stars Of God' with it’s amazing bluesy guitar solo before fading out nicely with the bleak and peaceful 'Conclusion'.

Now on the downside, as ambitious and impressive a piece of work this is it does fall short in some areas, as great an idea is it doesn’t automatically mean the idea has come to fruition. The idea of the concept behind the album has taken of the content somewhat and it does feel like the album has been padded out to meet the criteria of three albums each at 33.30 minutes. For example the third disc is completely instrumental (aside some spoken word) ambient pieces with some ritualistic tribal passages also. Now don’t get me wrong this is cool. It will be great as interludes in their live show and all of it will be great as a film score it’s not bad but is it really necessary? After already going through an hour and 10 minutes I don’t really need to listen to film score music, now a lot of reviewers have been stroking their chin and baffling on about the concept of the concept etc, etc but talking as a someone in the real world who bought a CD I’m telling you most people will listen to it once and skip the third disc when revisiting the album. Again it’s a genius idea but I do feel the album had been constructed to fit the idea rather and naturally be length it needed to be, if it was one long 33 minute piece that might have worked on the whole this would have been fine as a double album just like "Contradiction".

That gripe aside "Triangle" is a slow burning, dark, complex, intelligent, intricate album that is well worth investing your money and time in. It takes a lot of listens to fully digest but the rewards are plenty and they keep coming.


  1. Crepusculum
  2. Father's Breath
  3. In Dialogue With Death
  4. Diluculum
  5. Consensus
  6. Awakening From The Dream Of Life
  7. The World Destroyed By Water
  8. Satori
  9. Metanoia
  10. Above The Stars Of God
  11. Conclusion
  12. The Third Ray Of Light
  13. Cathartic Confession
  14. Jacob's Dream
  15. Maelstrom
  16. The Empyrean

Reviewer: twansibon
Jun 27, 2016
Next review: Ihsahn – Arktis

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