It seems I am slowly scratching the surface of what I like to call “underground death-doom” – bands who play this genre of music but not are a well-known mainstream name. Below your Paradise Losts and your Swallow the Suns lay an abundance of bands you don’t know anything about but have been making music for as long as those have been around. Enter Officium Triste, a Dutch death-doom band that has been around for almost 30 years, and whose newest album, Hortus Venenum, is a fantastic addition to the death-doom canon.

Hortus Venenum starts off slowly with first track “Behind Closed Doors”, emphasizing the doom aspect of death-doom, before giving the illusion of a faster tempo by adding melodic elements to the main theme. Around a quarter of the way through the music picks up tempo, showcasing a sliver of clean vocals before coming back to the main theme and the heavy emphasis of harsh vocals. Throughout the first half of the album, the music oscillates between slow, melodic moments and what I can only describe as death metal-esque passages of music that give the illusion of speed. In between the oscillation, you get snatches of highly emotive playing and the build-up of atmosphere.

These elements eventually weave into the album’s main thematic through-line, reminding me of bands like Swallow the Sun and Golgotha. Those bands wield melancholy like an instrument, creating a balanced interplay between musicianship and emotional acuity. This allows for a clean yet weighty dynamic that screams of professionalism. It’s obvious Officium Triste know how to craft a potent death-doom record – they are incredibly solid and clearly like to focus on the details. For example, on “Anna’s Woe”, there’s this solid guitar solo that seamlessly transitions into a synth-heavy coda before going back to its death metal roots. This song also signals the transition into the heavier parts of the album, indicating to the listener that there is more to come.

I also wanted to spend a moment talking about my favorite song on the record, “Forcefield”. If there ever was a time to use the term “money song”, then this is it. Although “Walk in Shadows” lays the foundation for what’s to come on the second half of the album, “Forcefield” is a song that sounds nothing like its predecessors. It is also the most death metal song so far on this album, showcasing how well Officium Triste has built and weaved heavy atmosphere into their music. The music crescendos into this heavy mix of death and doom that leads to this incredibly moving passage of music that makes you want to move. Up until this point, I was enjoying the record, but was hoping for something more, and “Forcefield” gave that to me. If nothing else, this song is what you came here for; this is worth the price of admission by starting off slow.

Despite its praise, the main issue with Hortus Venenum is that, by having an album that sounds as close as proto-death-doom as this one does, it can quickly become repetitive. Even with new listens, you can’t help but pay attention to the same things that once made you take notice of innovation. Perhaps this may be because I have listened to more death-doom – especially of the modern strain – in recent times, so perhaps my expectations were not met initially. I understand that Officium Triste is a legacy band, with their ups and downs throughout their career, and they are bound to the confines that they have set for themselves as a band. If anything, Hortus would have the distinction of becoming part of a common death-doom lingua franca, another album that can serve as an entry point to the genre.

In the end Hortus Venenum is an effective, sincere album reaffirming the band’s legacy. Although it took me some time to finally sit down and enjoy it, I can say that if you haven’t heard of this band yet, sit down and check out their entire discography. After all, if their past oeuvre is of the same quality as this, then no one should have any issues exploring the intricacies of Officium Triste’s particular brand of death-doom.

–Hera

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Hortus Venenum is available now on Transcending Obscurity Records. For more information on Officium Triste, visit their official Facebook.