Officium Triste

After a short spell spent operating as a normal death metal band named Reincremated, the Netherlands’ Officium Triste were reborn in 1994 as a normal doom/death band — and an exceedingly capable one, at that — taking very much inspiration in the works of Heaven Lost, My Dying Bride, and Katatonia. And, since introducing their profession via 1996’s Mountains of Depressiveness EP and 1997’s eagerly embraced Ne Vivam LP, neither long lasting bandmembers Pim Blankenstein (vocals), Gerard de Jong (electric guitar), and Martin Kwakernaak (keyboards) nor afterwards enhancements Lawrence Meyer (bass) and Niels Jordaan (drums), who became a member of after 2001’s The Pathway record, have found multiple reasons to waver out of this school of thought. The closest they found doing this was by dabbling in funeral doom tempos on following albums like 2004’s Cause and 2007’s Offering Yourself Apart, but provided the latter’s regularly engaging if generally surprise-free songwriting criteria, there’s little question that Officium Triste will keep on mining their selected creative vein for quite some time to come.