Peering down upon the accomplishments of the past as they are carbonized to coal and embers Chicago, Illinois-based melodic blackened death metal duo OSSILEGIUM meditate upon a newly lit path in acknowledgment of the powers that be and the inevitable judgement which lies ahead within the utter dark on this fine debut full-length album. A set of Eldritch scenes depicted as void of lay sentience ‘The Gods Below‘ acts in close study of the old ways and gestures of Scandinavian melodic black/death metal, keeping this primacy as a bar to reach rather than a source to drain impressionistic sense from. This reverence and clear fandom shines through as they manifest a carefully attuned and personalized first vision of said peak craft. Though the connectivity of their concoctions does not always supersede its forcefully applied nature a few key songs, and the right sound, should naturally provide some exceptional mileage to fans of this style without entirely bending the knee in reference of the relentless mastery of the old gods.

Lead by guitarist and assumed main songwriter Exhul (ex-Kommandant) the first life of Ossilegium began as a melodic black metal band under the name Empyreus back in 2009 eventually recruiting folks from the Chicago area underground in various configurations for a set of three EP releases. From my point of view their sound on their third record (‘Empyreus‘, 2017) was more or less aimed at canonical USBM in most respects and did it best but this doesn’t provide any too clear lineage for the style of the band when their name changed in 2020. The first few years under this new name basically took the ‘Blood Eel‘-era Kommandant line-up sans Bresnahan and tasked them with a take on Swedish melodic black/death metal inspired work, again not an uncommon feat when we consider the late 90’s USBM canon but a different ‘old school’ feeling and sound from the group on their self-titled debut mLP (‘Ossilegium‘, 2020) compared to just a few years prior. Raw and chaotic in its echoic render as it was that first release had a certain circa ’96 post-‘Storm of the Lights Bane‘ tinge to it, nothing as tuneful as Soulreaper but still that much of a stab into blackened death metal territory.

‘The Gods Below‘ more or less builds from that point, refining the melodious aspect of their work with core input coming from the duo of Exhul and vocalist/guitarist Moroii (Blackened Temple) with session drums from the always impressive Krzysztof Klingbein. Though their sound remains hard-shot and less neatly written compared to the classics of the mid-to-late 90’s in terms of conveying overtly stated and oft consonant melody we still get the twists and turns of classicist melodic black/death metal of the Swedish variety as the girding for their fortress built herein; Upon first glance we will find an album written in two largely distinct halves for an experience which builds bristling, violent bravado and a focus on serpentine attack to start and then a conclusory trio of songs which are longer, more detailed in their tuneful revelry of auld melodicism.

Though production values herein might warrant mention of early Dissection-era craft and the more harried melodic death-fed strokes of ‘A Bloodred Path‘ era Gates of Ishtar on songs like opener “Nightborn” and the more abruptly scalded “Serpentine Shadows” the actual flow of these songs is arguably closer to something like the first Setherial album in terms of whipping away uninterrupted for longer stretches of time and using less sophisticated framing for a lighter quota of melodic ideas. Or, in the case of the latter we get some early 2000’s The Chasm style riffcraft (~3:24 minutes in) to stand in place of where an interruptive melodic phrase or rocking lead guitar moment might traditionally strike down. Granted the former features its own heavy rock inflected lead ~2:30 minutes in, and this is a best food forward in terms of clearly communicating the intent of ‘The Gods Below‘ as a record which aims for the sound and standard of mid-90’s Swedish melodic black/death metal.

From my point of view the caveat is that this is not a hard and fast rule of impersonation and we don’t find every song reaching for a tuneful result, such as the rattled thrashing bleakness of “The Winds of Astaroth” or the bleak thrum of “Beyond the Clandestine” which feels like a piece meant to open a long lost circa ’99 A Canorous Quintet album. All good things eh, as a huge fan of this style but also not a band that exists purely for imitation of the old ways. We see the remnants of the path toward this point there on that fourth song; Otherwise we have a rare find here in terms of ‘The Gods Below‘ actually dipping into its best, most resonant material on its second half. The thrashing and riding step of “To Reach the Eternal Ends” acts as the bridge into this far more tunneled-through Side B, serving the most actively struck and longest piece on the full listen with longer stretches of guitar exposition and from my point of view some of the better drum arrangements on the album. I’d had a lot of false stops and starts trying to get into the first half of the record but I’d found this was the song that began to reveal the insight inlaid into Ossilegium‘s work and where they’d stake their claim to this sound. Not every piece was a hit on the path to that point but a better rounded full listen began to form with some patience for letting the whole record rip.

Again, the momentum hit for me once the second half of this album showed up with a steadier flow of ideas. The ‘Lunar Strain‘-type guitar leads and heavier death-grooves of “Constellationrise” alongside the gracefully set dual rhythm guitar interplay of the closer/title track righted their ship from my point of view and provided a more complete foundation worth returning to. I’d suggest the impatient listener glossing through the first few songs make sure to jump to some of these later pieces for more of the bigger picture of what ‘The Gods Below‘ brings in terms of classic melodic death traits and thrashing black reveal which a song like “The Winds of Astaroth” doesn’t necessarily provide straight away.

All things considered, I’d found Ossilegium came close to nailing the authentic era-specific spiritus and feeling of this style without flatly imitating it in a cheap way, adding their own sense of blackened death aggression to some of these songs at the cost of some expected romanticist dramatism. For my own taste what was generally missing beyond the opening duo and a couple of the later songs on the album was the tumultuous, harried over-the-top feeling their core points of inspiration tended toward in seeming effortless stride back in the day. The sensation provided is yet approximate enough that I was thoroughly entertained and found nothing but enjoyment within my time invested into ‘The Gods Below‘. At this point I see this debut as an exceptional first draft, a glorious step taken in securing their own voice which aims itself in step with perhaps the highest standards of (credible) melodic black/death statement. For many this will be a very reasonable balance-point between notable melodicism and hard-assed death metal traits, even if they’ve not gone brutal with it in any sense. A moderately high recommendation.

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