OFFICIUM TRISTE — Immersed (review)

OFFICIUM TRISTE — Immersed album cover Split · 2012 · Death-Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Mirthless memories...

Genre: death doom

Immersed is a split featuring two of Europe's leading doom metal bands – namely, the Dutch act Officium Triste and the German act Ophis, each contributing with two fine tracks. The Dutchmen are responsible for the first two tracks while the Germans deliver he two last ones.

Both bands operate within the subgenre of death doom metal, which means that there are similarities in their music, which creates a sense of cohesion throughout the entire release, but they sound different enough that you can hear that they are two different bands with their own takes on the death doom genre, and there is the variation that there should be on a split release. I quite like this unified yet varied character of Immersed which makes it a very interesting listen.

The two Officium Triste tracks 'Repent' and 'Bittersweet Memories', while slow and heavy, are extremely melodic and feature harmonic guitars on top of the heavy beats, accompanied by atmospheric keyboards. This way, there is a certain sense of dark lushness to the texture of the music, which generates a sense of melancholy and depression. True to the death doom style, the vocals consist of drawn out guttural growls, but these are combined with speech which has an almost Tom Warrior-like moaning quality to it. Overall, the two Officium Triste tracks are quite well put together and their sad melodicism has a very compelling quality to it.

Both Ophis and Officium Triste really deliver the goods on this split, and both bands, while using slightly different aesthetics, succeed in expressing the same sense of melancholy and doom-laden desperation. Fans of death doom should definitely see if they can get a hold on this fine split release.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed