Officium Triste Hortus Venenum

Widely regarded as legends in the style, Dutch death/doom metal band Officium Triste have mastered the art of playing emotive yet elegant music and have honed their sound even more on their seventh full length album. 'Hortus Venenum' is a special album as it celebrates the band's 30th year anniversary and it's remarkable that even after so many years they have continued to evolve and improve upon their already established sound. The songwriting is surprisingly effective with it's disarming simplicity and clean, exquisite tunes soaked in heartfelt emotion, delivered with the kind of sincerity which only comes from years of experience, both as musicians and worldly men. The relatively shorter songs have a sense of immediacy that the previous albums didn't have but their emotional depth is just as strong if not better than before. There are tasteful embellishments all over the album without affecting the sense of continuity and cohesiveness; there's diversity without disrupting the overall mood and the music's innate evocative power. With intuitively arranged songs, it's hardly perceptible that 'Hortus Venenum' is the band's shortest full length album and yet it's among their most potent ones - the beauty and appeal of the music on this one is nigh unparalleled. Suffice to say, it's another masterpiece from this band that only seems to get better with age.