Officium Triste
Reason

I had heard about Officium Triste, and their name definitely stuck with me (it's the Latin title for the sacramental act of extreme unction).
But I couldn't recall where I had heard of them before, nor could I remember if I'd read about them in some metal review magazine or seen them somewhere on those satellite music channels. Anyway, despite remembering hearing good things about them, purchasing the album "Reason" was apparently a bit of a gamble, even more so since the CD has only 5 songs. Now, however, I can say that this album is truly awesome, beautiful, and full of expressiveness—without exaggeration, one of the best metal albums I've listened to recently and thus also one of my favorites.

As I've mentioned several times in my various posts on Debaser, my favorite band is Type O Negative. I love how they manage to create sad and somber backgrounds through their metallic melody, capturing the very essence of Gothic in its most intimate form. Thus, the genre should essentially be gothic, but it's not; we have excellent Doom Metal supported by powerful keyboards that contribute to perfecting the atmosphere of Rancor and Frustration. Yes, because that's what the band seems to propose: making you cry with metal, a topic that's always intrigued me in every gothic/doom band that attempted it. The melody is funereal and sad, dramatic yet simultaneously nervous and depressed. A perfect soundtrack to describe the emotion of a funeral.

These Dutch guys are, in my opinion, fantastic and perfectly express a bitter atmosphere caused by an infinite tragedy. Indeed, there are only five songs, but each of them lasts an average of five minutes so the listening length is acceptable. It begins with "In Pouring Rain," where slow, gritty guitars accompany an angry Growl voice in a slow and melancholic background. The sounds are impeccably clear, alternating moments of classical techniques with deep mystical and melodic distortions. With "The Silent Witness," we have a sweet and dark piece combined through the use of melancholic keyboards over which the excellent Growl almost poetically moves, giving a clear idea of lament. The guitars are increasingly slower, crafting fantastic melodies that truly pleasure lovers of this genre [FUNERAL DOOM??????]. The piece undergoes several instrumental divergences while always keeping the decadent and melancholic spirit alive. Next comes "This Inner Twist," with a typically Epic beginning due to the use of pumping keyboards on which massive guitars writhe, alternating Angry moments full of negative energy with more distorted and humbly sweet moments. Then comes "The Sun Doesn't Shine Anymore," lasting ten minutes, and it's in my opinion the most expressive song on the entire album, the most melodic, the most decadent, the most sorrowful, the most pessimistic. A true masterpiece that starts slow and with piano, then flows into rhythmic guitar solos heralding the slow and tired Growl, not devouring and nervous as we're usually accustomed to hearing in the death genre and its derivatives. It concludes with "A Flower in Decay," which is a demonstration of Officium Triste's style; it too is introduced by the mystical sound of a piano with echo, where keyboards with violin effects paint a mortuary picture without aiming to impart horrific and dark emotions but rather desperate memories eternally suppressed.

These Officium Triste truly satisfied me, and I think they could do the same for anyone who loves gothic metal and Doom in the Anathema style.
"Reason" is an excellent album of disordered passions, a decadent representation of objective human pessimism. It may also be simple on a musical and instrumental level since there's nothing in these songs we haven't already heard in other metal bands, but the same cannot be said about the genre that is explored and pushed to its fullest extent in this CD.