Worship Him

Worship Him, the debut release from future Swiss metal stars Samael, is about as rough and raw as it gets, eviscerating all comers with its savage and primitive black metal assault, which was clearly inspired by the earliest works of Bathory, Hellhammer, and Mayhem. Fans attracted later on who backtrack to these primal origins will find virtually no signs of the band they came to know, since only a few slightly more disciplined highlights like "Sleep of Death" and "The Dark," as well as the prophetic keyboard instrumental "Last Benediction," even hint at Samael's subsequent development into one of Europe's most innovative and genre-bending extreme metal bands. Yes, black metal purists will argue all night long about how it was all downhill from here, but it's difficult to imagine Samael making much of a career within such self-limiting parameters. Nay, evolution was their destiny.