Saturday, August 8, 2009

Worship - Last CD Before Doomsday (1999)

Demo, Impaler of Trendies
1999

Track List :

1.Whispering Gloom 11:53
2.Solicide and the Dawning of the Moonkult 10:59
3.Eclipse of Sorrow 08:18
4.Worship 15:23
5. Keep On Selling Cocaine to Angels 08:32

Total Playing Time - 53:55 minutes


Imagine the most painful moment in your life. Imagine pain. Imagine anguish. Imagine despair. Imagine this painful existence slowly coming to an end. This is what it feels like on listening to this masterpiece, which quite brilliantly portrays the raw emotions to those who know what it is to be depressed.


‘The last CD/Tape/Vinyl before doomsday’ is probably the finest funeral doom release ever. I would go as far as to call it the soundtrack to suicide. This is one of the albums that you have to sit down and listen to, in order to understand the music. The music is slow, as expected with funeral doom, and extremely heavy.


What immediately captured my attention were the vocals. Its almost as if Max knew this was the end and put in all that he had in this album. His vocals are sick and twisted. He doesn’t just do deep guttural vocals, but effectively uses some shrieks and some whispers. Max knows exactly what he is doing and what is needed to create such dismal music.


The guitars are brilliant and possibly are The Doommonger’s best work yet. They are distorted and heavy as fuck. Not all of the guitar work is distorted though. There are some clean guitar passages that maximize the oppressive atmosphere of these songs. The solo at the end of ‘whispering gloom’ gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it and sends me to a totally different state of mind. The riffs are excellent. Extremely slow, but crushing and suffocating. It sweeps over the listener like a tidal wave.


The drums are typical of funeral doom. They are played very slowly and are non-existent in parts. It would not matter even if the drums weren’t present in this release. Nothing special, but done well.


Overall, I consider this to be the benchmark against which I judge other funeral doom releases. After a while of listening, you find yourself staring at an endless void. You find yourself surrendering yourself to this void. You witness nothingness. You feel empty, hollow and devoid of all happiness. You almost feel dead. All hope abandoned; your spirit broken. But in spite of all this, you find yourself coming back to this again and again.


This is Funeral Doom. This is what it was meant to be. Absolute perfection


R.I.P max


10/10




1 comment:

  1. I agree. My favourite funeral doom work. Absolutely oppressive.

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