Band:	Mournful Congregation / Worship
Album:	Worship / Mournful Congregation
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	August 2002

Worship:
01. Let There Be Doom...

Mournful Congregation:
02. The Epitome Of Gods And Men Alike

And on the 1st day the god of funeral doom said "let there be doom" and there was doom. And god saw that it was good - and thus doom reigned supreme on earth, leaving not a single chance for hope to blossom for everything was filled with agony and grief since the very beginning of creation. Those to inherit the earth and keep this ominous legacy alive were Worship and Mournful Congregation!

Worship opens the split and they "let there be doom" for sure since the song they offer is ultra slow, filled with gloom and despair and shows that there's no will to go on. The tempo of the song is uncompromisingly slow with the guitars and the rhythm section evoking that heaviness and dynamism a funeral doom song must have, which means heavily distorted riffing and a rhythm section creating walls of sound. The vocals are utterly deep and grunting, pacing with the funeral feeling of the song with Worship showing for one more time their grandeur.

Yet, the song that will leave you speechless, in my opinion, is Mournful Congregation's "The Epitome Of Gods And Men Alike". It doesn't rely on simplistic ultra slow riffing that seems to be the same from the beginning until the end. Actually, the guitars do not have that monolithic approach, on the contrary, they sound melodic, without being afraid to offer a soloing passage, not something affected or difficult but definitely beautiful and melancholic. Mournful Congregation managed to compose a really brilliant piece of emotional beauty that can easily overrun the listener with its intense and fragile feeling. The rhythm section plays a gentle role, being not the bombastic rhythm section someone would expect, pacing with the fragile aesthetic of the song. The vocals are deep and grunting, haunting the listener with their desperate and mourning interpretation.

The fans of the genre should check out this split release and cherish Worship's monolithic gloom and Mournful Congregation's fragile desperation, with "The Epitome Of gods And Men Alike" stealing definitely the show!