OFFICIUM TRISTE are a six-piece Death/Doom Metal band hailing from Rotterdamn, South Holland, Netherlands. Forming in 1994, the band have released six full-length studio albums along with numerous EP's, Demos, and Splits along the way. The most recent release, "The Death of Gaia" will be released on December 13th of this year.

On the sixth release from this Dutch death/doom band, we hear an interesting contrast through the record of hard and soft. The album kicks off with "The End is Nigh" which also happened to be my favorite track on the release. It starts with a smooth string section that makes you question just how "metal" the band really is. When the rest of the band including growling vocals from Pim Blankenstein kick in about a minute into the track, you wonder shifts to amazement. It becomes an excellent blend of slow and heavy, everything that you'd want in a Death/Doom record.

The second track, "World in Flames", starts with a beautiful piano intro before again dropping into a gloomy heaviness of epic proportions. The drumming on this track sticks out as an almost Hip-Hop/Trap-esque style that is so out of the ordinary for this genre it's jarring but in the best way possible. As if enough boundaries hadn't already been pushed, the fourth track "A House In A Field In The Eye Of The Storm" offers a nice little interlude on the album that is laced with acoustic guitars. Normally I don't care for interludes in general, but this track is nice. It's a beautiful blend that this band is clearly comfortable with.

The band achieved so much with this record sonically. Each track is a perfect blend of chaos that flows beautifully and compliments the album as a whole. I was unfamiliar with the band prior to hearing this record but after giving it a thorough examination I plan to go back through their catalog.