Andrew DuncanOssuarium
Living Tomb
20 Buck Spin
★★★★
Finally spring boarding from their Calcified Trophies Of Violence demo form 2017, Portand’s Ossuarium gets their debut full length glory via 20 Buck Spin. Living Tomb is as much about hallucinatory doom metal as it is death rock from the underground. The combination of both lead to a great duality for the band.
Although the quality from their demo is impressive, the production of this album amps the group up to badass levels and leaves an acid green tint on an impressively dense sound. As the music transcends on a song like “Vomiting Black Death,” the treble collides with a gutteral rhythmic pulse. It creates a well rounded sound that is darkly mesmerizing. This song reminds me of the glorious days of early ‘90s doom bands along with their death metal counterparts all wrapped into one.
Yet the tomb becomes ransacked within the cacophony of “End of Life Dreams Part 1. Ossuarium bursts into screaming death metal that is lazy or bludgeoning hardcore that is ambitious. It’s however you look at it. Either way it blurs the senses and creates an illusionary effect of twisted bone-chilling metal. The guitar solo blisters out of control as the song progresses into gore-like ritualistic echos of deathly pleasures.
“Part II” explores the doom side of the band with crushing power chords and slaughtered time signatures. Their tones are carefully planned to turn the song into a creepy horror soundtrack. When you think they have entrenched their sound in the crypts of a certain style, they rise above to a higher level of fundamental death metal without being lofty beyond traditional expression. Hands down, this is a great listen.