Band: Officium Triste

Title: The Pathway

Label: Displeased Records

Distribution: Displeased Records

Release date: February 2008

Review: re-release-CD

Officium Triste is probably one of the most important Doom bands from Holland . Strongly influenced by, especially, the English scene, this band did already record four full length albums, along with a split and a very limited EP. Displeased Records recently started re-releasing older and hard-to-find material from many Metal bands, and this label did also decide to re-release the second Officium Triste -album, The Pathway , with some bonus material. The Pathway , which was originally recorded in 2001, stands for melodic and somewhat depressing Doom / Death Metal with a subtle old school feeling. Tracks as Pathway (Of Broken Glass) (best song of the album) and Divinity are strongly influenced by, especially, early Anathema , Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride and of course, that can be appreciable, in case the band can equal these protagonists' level. I'm afraid they do not completely, yet Officium Triste 's music comes near, very near, to this high level. This re-releases does include, as mentioned before, a few bonus tracks. Those are both songs from the Roses On My Grave 7”EP (2001), the promo-version of Divinity (better version than the one on The Pathway ) (2000) and two live tracks, Pathway and Roses …, recorded at the 013 ( Tilburg , Holland ) in 2002. A modest Doom-monument, that's what this (re-) release stands for.

--/100

Ivan Tibos.