Warthur Samael's debut album may represent the missing link between the proto-black metal of their fellow Swiss citizens Hellhammer and the early Norwegian black metal scene. Combining the sick, scuzzy aesthetic of Hellhammer with eruptions reminiscent of classic-period Mayhem or Satyricon, the album provides a clear precedent of much of what the black metal scene would produce subsequently. Like Darkthrone's second album, there's an interesting blend here of black metal and an earlier style of extreme metal - doom metal in this particular case - which enriches the album's sound and makes it enduringly compelling to this day. Though this doesn't seem to get the same fanfare that foundational works by the Norwegian crowd enjoys, Samael's debut represents an essential entry in the history of black metal.

Saturn Worship Him is a black metal classic. For the most part the album is doomy and somewhat slow with lots of heavy riffs and some thrashier sections interspersed. Think HellHammer but more technical. The vocals are very raspy and suit the music quite well, they definitely have an inhuman quality to them.

The lyrics on the album are very blasphemous and full of hate. Their isn't alot of subtlety with lines like this presented: "Everybody will be punished only the children of the rebellious angel will be saved while the worshippers of the stinking pig, victims of ignorance and naivity, will remain prisoners of the carnal form and forever rot in that cursed pit that has become of earth." These kind of straightforward lyrics separate the band from alot of artists who try to be more cryptic and never take the music past a sort of grim level, while Samael went past that level and made the music sound truly evil on this recordand I think the lyrics help achieve that in large part here.

The atmosphere is very dark on Worship Him though some songs carry it better than others. Sleep of Death, and Into the Pentagram are examples of songs that are loaded with this kind of rich atmosphere. While none of them are devoid of said atmospheric qualities, the title track doesn't do a whole lot in that department and is kind of on the monotonous side.

Overall this is a great album and though I definitely put Blood Ritual over this one, Worship Him is the album that got me into Samael. A menacing, pitch black lp that belongs in every extreme metal head's collection.

I highly recommend this one.