### Officium Triste: Giving yourself away

#### 23/11/10 || Daemonomania

In the Nedderlands, it is OK to be depressed. If you don’t run a black metal trailer park life has the potential to suck. Tulips grow everywhere, forming a bleak tapestry of eternal gloom that oppresses the eye. Windmills spin lazily, luring unwary travelers to their death. Chicks cheat on you. Even your Triste appears to be a cheap knockoff, not the Officium version. Boo hoo.

From this whiny land emerged the Dutch band in question, circa 1994. For 16 years they’ve been laying down the death/doom with cheeseball lyrics. I guess things haven’t gotten any better on the relatonship front during that time, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Ugly bunch of dudes. Being uneasy on the eye helped them churn out the album “Reason” in 2004, which I dig quite a bit. A scant 3 years pass and some definitely negative changes have taken place in ze Ho-land.

First and foremost the clean vocals of PIM, not very good to begin with, have emerged to take center stage. Someone in the band lied and told Mr. Blankenstein he was a great singer. The audience suffers for their deception. So with off-key droning through supergay breakup lyrics being the dominant factor, we can rule out 4 out of 6 songs as being listenable. Also adding to an already thick layer of schmaltz is the Casio, which appears to have sprouted a pair of arms and started contributing to the songwriting process.

So what is still quality? Guitarwork, for one. There’s even a Morbidly Angelic “Gateways”-style moment in the first track. Meyer, de Jong, and Kwakernaakaakakkakkk know how to handle a plodding, oppressive riff and draw it out over the course of seven minutes. PIM-PONG’s growls are also pretty damn excellent, and sound appropriately cavernous with an improved production. More of the growling, less of the cheesing makes “On the crossroads of souls” and “Inside the mind” standout material on an otherwise bland disc. Please note the drumming, while certainly not flashy, is solid in a genre not known for flashiness.

My final judgement is that an overwhelming amount of romanticism has crept into OT’s sound. “Reason”, while being a bit fruity, had enough DEATH to bring the pain. “Giving your mouth away” brings a dose of pain fo sho, but it is akin to the reflexive phantom pain one feels when they hear about a freak accident where a pointy object is jabbed into an unlucky victim’s anus. GYA (GAY?) is strictly for the My Dying Bride/Anathema crowd, not Daemo. Immediately after the last track faded out, I completely switched tracks and put on Busta’s “Woo Hah!”. Ahhh, pleasure.

- Information
- Released:2007
- Label: Displeased
- Website: www.officiumtriste.com
- Band
- Pim Blankenstein: vocals
- Gerard de Jong: guitars
- Johan Kwakernaak (really?): guitars
- Lawrence Meyer: bass
- Martin Kwakernaak (really??): drums, synth, vocals

- Tracklist
- 01. Your Eyes
- 02. My Charcoal Heart
- 03. Signals
- 04. On The Crossroads Of Souls
- 05. Inside The Mind
- 06. Master Of Your Own Demise