“In the days of antiquity, after the embers of a funeral pyre had died, the bones of the deceased would be gathered together in a funerary box and given a place of reverence to withstand the ravages of time. OSSILEGIUM stand upon these burnt offerings of the past while forging onward into new realms of darkness, where even light fears the eventual entropy of universal death.”
That’s an excerpt from the press materials distributed by Personal Records for this Chicago band’s debut album The Gods Below, which is set for release on May 3rd. We don’t usually copy/paste from PR materials, but maybe you see why we just did that — and why we’re doing it again next:
“Indeed, the record is aptly titled, for the alternately ice-cold / burning-hot majesty the duo unleash here reinvigorates noble old tropes – namely, the days when melody was married to death metal crunch and when leathery black wings enclosed it, flying far and free across a landscape of blue-purple emotion.”
Those words are intriguing and evocative and. unlike lots of promotional representations, they also haven’t come un-tethered from the reality of the music — because Ossilegium‘s music really is a reinvigoration of noble old tropes. Take, for example, the song that served as the new album’s first single, “Nightborn“, which seized this writer’s attention even before knowing we would be invited to host the next song premiere.
As I compulsively wrote at the time, that song is an experience of hellfire and mortar fire. From moment one, Ossilegium strike with overpowering force, like a napalm blast front coupled with a rapid bombardment. With fanatically howling vocals in front, the roiling riffage is dense and blistering, the drums punishing, the bass a bowel-loosening engine.
It’s a breathtaking sensation, even when the rhythm section starts pumping like high-octane pistons, because that’s a prelude to a gloriously swirling solo. And actually, although the riffing relentlessly blazes, it elaborately whirls and chimes too, magnificent as well as dire and deleterious.
We’re now following that first single with the premiere of another, and this one is the new album’s electrifying title track.
In the low end, a massive subterranean earthquake rumbles. Up above, glittering guitars writhe and whine. In between, an active bass moans and maneuvers like a snake. When the rhythm section erupts and a voice wildly howls, the riffing blazes but also creates feelings of severe distress. And the changes keep coming.
Big booming beats anchor brilliantly rippling riffage; outbursts of percussive thunder meld with madly gyrating fretwork; big slashing chords manifest imperious cruelty; and without warning, acoustic picking elegantly glitters and evokes medieval times, and the louder guitars then pick up that melody and carry it forward, shining and spiraling.
The song’s dynamism is relentless. Through seamless changes in the riffing, the music continues shifting the mood, tracing melodies that sound perilous and dismal as well as magisterial and exultant. Through it all, the rhythm section keeps the pulse pounding, and the vocals violently scream in throes of frightening intensity.
And so the song is one that simultaneously seems like an extravagant tapestry unrolled from an iron-bound chest retrieved from ancient catacombs, wondrous in its unraveling — and examined in the midst of a demonic assault that has burst through the gates of Hell.
Ossilegium is a Chicago-based duo composed of Exhul (Empyreus, Kommandant, Withering Soul) and Valr (Amongst the Fallen, Blackened Temple, Kommandant).
Personal Records will release The Gods Below on CD and digital formats, and recommends it for fans of Necrophobic, Sacramentum, Unanimated, Gates of Ishtar, and Sweden’s Dawn and Naglfar.
PRE-ORDER:
https://personal-records.bandcamp.com/album/the-gods-below
OSSILEGIUM:
https://www.facebook.com/Ossilegium.666/