Review by Sonny for Worship - Last Tape Before Doomsday (1999)

Worship were a funeral doom duo formed in 1998 and based in Munich comprising Daniel "Pan" Vaross and Maximilien "The Impaler of Trendies" Varnier (aka Fucked-up Mad Max). They recorded this four-track demo in April of '99 and released it as a limited edition cassette via Max's own Impaler of Trendies record label. It was then picked up by Weird Truth and received another (very) limited cassette release. And so it would probably have ended, except that in June of 2001 Fucked-up Mad Max lived up to his name and proved that the isolation and melancholy expressed in his music was no mere aesthetic choice but something he lived every day, when he commited suicide by throwing himself off the Edmonton High Level Bridge. The ensuing notoriety ensured that the demo had several more widespread releases on both vinyl and CD and word soon got around.

So to the actual music! Sometimes it is hard to come to a release without any bias, especially one as notorious as this, but in the realms of funeral doom, this is about as authentic as it gets. The production isn't great, obviously as it was a demo recording, but that's not really too much of a concern in extreme metal, be it doom, black or any other type of metallic extremity for that matter. In fact, a rough, lo-fi sound can add a certain edginess or filthiness to a release that a cleaner production fails to deliver and is certainly the case here.

First track Whispering Gloom is an extremely well-written track and is probably the most interesting on the album, consisting of morbidly slow, sustained chords, Max's guttural growls and soaring lead work, which is then thrown into sharp contrast as the track pauses for breathe with a minimalistic spoken word section, before kicking back in, sounding even more desperate than before, the inate despair highlighted by a particularly mournful-sounding piano picking out single notes over the glacial central riff.

A personal favourite of mine is the closing track (of the tape version anyway), the eponymous Worship, a sheer titan of a track that crushes any clinging hopefulness out of the listener before album's end. It's first eight or nine minutes keep a grindingly slow tempo with Max's contemptuosly growled vocals counterpointing Dan Vaross' plaintive guitar tone. At this pont the bass seems to pick out a heartbeat and with the gently picked guitar builds a sense of impending doom, then heightened as the throbbing riff kicks in and the vocals return, but this time with a ritualised, chanted feeling, the track ending as Max growls prophetically "Kill yourself and worship".
 
The CD also features a bonus track, Keep On Selling Cocaine to Angels, which was released as Worship's side of a split EP with belgian grindcore act, Agathocles and features more of the same utter misery which is great to hear, although I do prefer the original tape ending with Worship's chaotic climax and Max's final line seems a fitting ending to such a seminal recording.

There are, arguably, few better examples of the true expression of funeral doom metal than Last Tape (or CD, or Vinyl) and it's unremittingly bleak vision, completely lacking in solace or, indeed, any positive emotion whatsoever. If you're adverse to introspection then you're probably best advised to steer clear of albums like this, but if you have no fear of gazing into the abyss then you really need this *record / tape / disc (*delete as necessary). Arguably the best doom metal demo ever released.