Worship Him

Switzerland's finest second wave Black Metal band Samael released this album in 1991, it was their first full-length, and it should be noted, one of the first true black metal releases, even beating out Darkthrone, though Darkthrone was in the process of recording A Blaze in the Northern Sky. Some would pass Worship Him off as just another black metal album, but I think that would be wrong, as this is one of the best black metal albums I have heard, and looking at the date, this is essential for any fan of early black metal. It is in many ways like Necrophobic's second release, The Nocturnal Silence, a basically forgotten classic of the early days of black metal.

The sound is a perfect one for black metal to me, right up there with Darkthrone's. It's very Bathory (at least Under the Sign of the Black Mark Bathory), with a lot of reverb, creating a clean, but very dungeon-like sound and atmosphere. The vocals are the normal kind of black metal sound, but are excellent as well. The drummer is very good, keeping the beat, and also filling in with interesting things. The bass is kind of audible, but not strongly so. The guitars and drums are obviously the main instruments. On the guitars there is a strange reverb sound, which again reminds me strongly of Bathory's guitar sound, which is by no means a bad thing. Riffs are melodic in nature, rather than the sound on Blood Ritual which was more Celtic Frost-like. Riffs are pure black metal on here. The speed varies, from very fast, to a kind of speeded up Black Sabbath gallop, to a slower to mid-pace tempo, which is the dominant tempo actually. Songs vary in speed and sound quite a bit, very often within the songs framework as well.

The sound on here is obviously influenced by fellow Swiss Celtic Frost, but like many of the black metal bands inspired by Celtic Frost, the Bathory and Venom influence also is there, creating an interesting sound, which can only be called true black metal. However, Samael really manage to create their own sound, as I can hear these songs and know it is Samael, for everything on here is their own, from the guitar sound to the way they construct songs.

Samael's primary focus seems to be to create an evil atmosphere of very dark dungeon like feelings. They succeed quite well, very few albums can so strongly make me think of De Sade or very twisted occult books and movies. Particularly what comes to mind when listened to this are the Dracula movies, particularly both versions of Nosferatu. The dark creaking evils of those movies really would work well with this dark evil album.

I'm very glad to have found this, as it really is excellent, Samael were really excellent in the black metal world, and I suggest finding this (perhaps with Blood Ritual like my copy) if you are interested or into early black metal.

Track Listing:
1: Sleep of Death
2: Worship Him
3: Knowledge of the Ancient Kingdom
4: Morbid Metal
5: Rite og Cthulhu
6: The Black Face
7: Into the Pentagram
8: Messanger Of the Light
9: Last Benediction
10: The Dark