COLUMBARIUM is a doom metal band from Belgium. 'The Morbidious One,' is their full length debut. This album is an interesting take on doom. The vocals are definitely extreme and will appease fans of death/doom. Pete's vocals range from a low, rumbling growl to searing screams. He does a fantastic job throughout the album and sounds terrifyingly convincing. He plays bass as well, offering everything from melodic riffs to a low end that destroys as well as it compliments the songs.

Biezie and Markie handle the guitars. Despite the vocals, the two of them don't really play death metal. The same could be said for the drummer, Vincent. While the album is certainly very heavy and intense, the music offers up stoner grooves, psychedelic tendencies, and old school doom as opposed to a more extreme approach. And it works very well for them and gives the album a sound that is both extreme yet layered presentation with a depressing, melancholic atmosphere. The first song is 'Eyes Bleed Black' and features Esmee from TYRANT’S KILL providing some cleans. Her voice fits the mood perfectly and contrasts, in a good way, with the death growls. I wished she was used more but what she does provide is appreciated.

Musically, the song is slow and thick, the bass buzzes tight and the drums hit all the right notes at the right time. As the song progresses, what amounts to melody for this band grows within the riffs, adding just enough progression to keep it interesting. The extreme vocals are very impressive here and firmly place the song onto a ‘heavier than a planet’ list of songs I’ve heard this year. The middle segment of the song is surprising, a passage laden with keys. It fits into the song smoothly and doesn’t seem out of place. The clean music stays as more cleans filter through the murk, moving ever forward back to heavy waters.

The title track is absolutely filthy, dangerous, and seething with the unseemingly. I love that swampy guitar solo that cuts through around the two minute mark. As this point the song is somewhat psychedelic. This style mixed with their usual brand of darkness is a mind fuck but definitely a welcomed one. The last two songs, ‘Our Glorious Ways’ and ‘A Cure For Everything - Get Back Alive’ are the two best songs on the album. The former sets a dark, suffocating tone that is immediate. The rush of bleakness is startling, there is no time to escape what is coming. The lead guitar licks only accent the impending doom. The song switches gears and centers on the bass guitar and ambient keys. This whole segment is harrowing and does nothing to enhance the mood, keeping it all dim and dower (a good thing of course).

Not long afterwards, the speeds up the song up and hurdles it toward another psychedelic solo The latter is ominous and hellish as anything else on the album. The riffs are just…a stalking monster of perpetual instability. The drums hammer this in and there is no respite. At certain points, this song is much faster than the previous songs and a lot of the instruments, especially the bass, take on a sludgier doom sound. After the six minute mark, the bass turns into a black hole for one of the best bass moments I’ve heard in awhile. From this moment on until the end, the song turns into a heavy but tripped out experience. A stellar ending to the album!

All in all, COLUMBARIUM’s ‘The Mordidious One’ is a solid as hell doom metal album that blends extreme sounds with a variety of different types of doom for one hell of a ride.