lista zespołów Funeral Doom Worship (GER) Last Tape Before Doomsday

On Last Tape Before Doomsday, Worship present the listener with four long songs of unrelenting funeral doom. Focusing on a similar wavelength to the band Thergothon, Last Tape Before Doomsday sees the band creating highly minimalistic and droning songs with a heavy emphasis on atmosphere, resulting in one of the most depressing albums within the metal scene.

Last Tape Before Doomsday is fairly typical by funeral doom standards, a down tuned, distorted guitar churns out long drawn out notes whilst a vocalist spits out low, incomprehensible growl mixed with the odd spoken word section. There’s not much in the way of dynamics, rather the variation between tracks comes from the mood each one successfully employs. From the depressed rumbling of the first two tracks, to the more sinister, foreboding yet still inhumanly crash of the last two tracks, Last Tape Before Doomsday successfully employs a myriad of moods to ensure that the music is kept interesting.

Funeral doom is a genre that prizes minimalism much more than other forms of metal and therefore aspects such as song writing become really important. It’s all well and good playing dirge like hymns to depression but if your song writing isn’t up to scratch then the results become lackluster. Worship on the other hand displays a strong sense of song writing far above what most funeral doom bands can hope to accomplish. The transitions between each section of the music runs smoothly, acoustic interludes never feel out of place, being a logical evolution of each track. Unlike most funeral doom, the songs on this album are in a constant state of evolution, never letting one musical idea grow stagnant, Worship move along each aspect of the music with a sense of determination. The spoken word sections work on a similar wavelength to the acoustic interludes, serving to break up the heavier sections of the music whilst still remaining consistent with the goals and general aesthetics of the music at hand.

Whilst minimalism should never be a means in on itself, Worship work incredibly well in an exclusively minimalistic, droning template. The riffs are really freaking huge, with one of the most powerful guitar tones known to man. The vocals are incredibly deep, powerful and expressive, whilst there isn’t much energy behind them, sounding tired and drawn out, they are incredibly effective and work incredibly well with the down tuned distorted riffs. The production is immaculate, each instrument is giving ample room to breathe, with the bass being audible, creating destructive undercurrents underneath the brutal waves of guitar, whilst the occasional washes of piano add even more ambiance and depth to the music.

Last Tape Before Doomsday presents a rawness that few can match, the music has been stripped to its bare necessities removing any and all unnecessary elements. Unlike many modern funeral doom bands who have incorporated female vocals and bombastic keyboards in an effort to make their sound pretty, Worship have done the exact opposite. This is how funeral doom was meant to sound, really thick, distorted guitars churning out drone after drone with very little, if any variation present. With Last Tape Before Doomsday, Worship has tapped into the darkest regions of the human psyche and have constructed an album that presents the most naked and pure representation of mental torment. Essentially some of the most extreme doom metal you will hear, Last Tape Before Doomsday comes highly recommended as an example of how to correctly play this style of music.