Post Mortem Blues

The Ossuary have a very cool name (it's like "the bone room" but more professional and Latinate) and have produced a pretty cool debut to boot. The bandmembers have previous experience together playing death metal, though this Post Mortem Blues sounds like most of the influences come from a time before Death had even been dreamed of. The roots here are pretty simple: Black Sabbath's doom metal with Dio's more jaunty vocals, glossed off by rhythms and melodic ideas that take in post-Sabbath proponents of similar stuff, such as the early Grand Magus that I hear (somewhat smoothed out) and mid-'90s Cathedral, who, if anyone dares to forget, were always good fun and pretty damn heavy into the bargain.

The Ossuary are Italian, which I only mention because it seems that a lot of Italian doom metal has not only a classic vibe to it but also a liking for the stoner side of things, which the ringing fuzz of 'Graves Underwater' and the well-named title track show to some extent, the latter reminding me of Colour Haze in the best possible way. The mood of Post Mortem Blues is thus fairly upbeat, 'Witch Fire' doing a good impression of Sabbath's 'Lady Evil' and the main riff of Cathedral's 'Ride' getting exploited for its bouncy rhythm more than once. The biggest explosion of joy, however, comes with the title track, a celebration of death that sees Stefano Fiori telling us that "in Hell, everything is fine", proving that tongues are not far from cheeks. The leads, too, are exceptionally uplifting for doom metal, bringing the feeling of the '70s in full force by way of the NWOBHM's more technical chops.

There are necessarily heavier and more contemplative moments, particularly in the dark epic 'Evil Churns', where a bruiser of a doom riff clubs us over the head and leaves us almost as unresistant as the possessed victim in the lyrics, while 'Graves Underwater' ventures into clean waters (don't drink them though!) in its later verses. I'm impressed by the fact that all eight songs play a part in making this a very consistent and enjoyable album, only 'The Crowning Stone' suffering slightly from a dreamier pace, over which the epic themes battle with another stoner doom riff reminiscent of Iron Man (the band).

Of all the pleasant doom surprises that this last year or so has brought (you owe it to yourself to get your ears on The Obsessed's latest too), Post Mortem Blues is one of the most coherent and fully-formed debuts I've heard, emphasizing riffs and fun over mood though actually succeeding at both, as the longer songs here prove. The title track is an absolute riot of classic metal bliss, but The Ossuary have produced a whole album of enviable quality.