Ossuarium – Living Tomb (Review)

This is the debut album from US death metallers Ossuarium.

Ossuarium play old-school death metal with a corrupting doom influence, so much so that to term this death/doom wouldn’t be completely inappropriate.

The songs on Living Tomb are heavy and monstrous. Lumbering along with a stumbling, shambling gait, they destroy everything they touch with crushing guitars and cavernous deathgrowls. The band use multiple paces and speeds, but even when playing faster there’s still the feeling of glacial macabre atmosphere being created by one aspect of the music or another.

Speaking of atmosphere, Ossuarium use this very effectively over the songs. Although the music certainly has its brutal and aggressive side, for the most part this is an album of mood and feeling; dark, dank atmosphere and macabre, sinister melodies feature heavily. The songs are well-written to make the most of this side of the music, ensuring that even when at their most hostile the listener’s absorption in the world of Living Tomb is rarely broken.

The album sounds like it has been birthed in the underworld a long time in the past and is only now seeing the light. Grim darkness and perpetual torment are as food to Ossuarium, but their suffering is our gain, as Living Tomb is a very satisfying and enjoyable slab of doom-influenced old-school death metal.