Haunting Atmosphere, Relentless Energy and Intriguing Lyrics - A Review of Ossuaire's Triumvirat

Ossuaire is a black metal quartet from Montreal that has released two full lengths efforts and two extended plays since its inception five years ago. Triumvirat is inspired by historical topics and offers five epic tracks with a generous running time of thirty minutes. This release was presented in time for legendary black metal festival Messe des Morts.

The band's sound is underproduced, raw and cold. The drum sound is a chaotic blur as the snares can barely be heard. The guitar sound is cranked up to the maximum and goes straight into your face. The vocals sound a little bit distant as they howl with desperate passion. The bass guitar play is a highlight since it can be heard quite distinctively and adds dynamic layers to the band sound. While this type of production should certainly please genre fans, it might have been even more beneficial to have a more distinctive drum sound and the vocals a little bit more dominant in the mixing process as it's almost impossible to distinguish any lyrics.

Ossuaire convinces most when it takes us on epic journeys with strong atmospheric vibes. This is enhanced by little experiments such as the use of bell sounds and chorals in the haunting instrumental opener ''À l'aube de l'impur'', the brief clean vocal passages in relentless title track ''Triumvirat'' and the melodious sacral sounds in atmospheric closer ''Cénotaphe'' that slows things down to end the record on a majestic note.

It's no secret that Quebec's black metal scene is one of the greatest in the world as it has been proven over and over again throughout the past two decades. Ossuaire is currently one of its most prolific bands and finds a perfect balance between haunting atmosphere, relentless energy and intriguing lyrics. Once the pandemic, that will certainly inspire even more genre-appropriate lyrics, will be over, I'm looking forward to attending one of the band's energetic concerts and hope that the quartet will continue to cement its place as one of the province's greatest bands to be around.

Final Rating: 79%