Friday, October 3, 2008

Worship - Last Tape Before Doomsday


Year: 1999
Genre: Funeral Doom Metal

It's the sign of a truly great band when they can convey exactly their intentions without relying on lyrics. Being able to transcend language barriers and express an emotion or atmosphere through music alone, and Worship do it effortlessly. The album opens to one of the best tracks "Whispering Gloom". It's an amazingly atmospheric piece, maybe even the most atmospheric on the album. It opens almost immediately immersing the listener in the style that's to be most frequent throughout the album. Soon it slows to almost a halt, becoming almost ambient, with wonderful and sorrowful spoken vocals. It's ridiculously depressing, and quite evident that this has no intention of trying to uplift you, but rather to wallow with you in the depths of sorrow. Despite being slow to the point of absurdity at times, the music is amazingly well written. The guitars above all else stand out to me, incomparably crushing and heavy at times, stunningly beautiful and sorrowful at others. Such as the part around the five minute mark in "Whispering Gloom", a gorgeous slow riff, instantly crushed by a ferocious, heavy funeral doom riff. The contrast between the lighter and heavier parts is masterful. It also serves as one of the many strong points of the album. It's used again on the closing, and my personal favorite track, "Worship". The song builds throughout, drops into a slow sparse ambient like passage, before building once more to a stunning and heavy climax. It then meanders into a drawn out noisy close.

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