Resurrected after an extended dormancy and mulling over ancient potentiate in darker times Kraków, Poland-based funeral death/doom metal duo POSTMORTAL return no less entranced by decaying reality as they channel anxious dread into their debut full-length album. ‘Profundis Omnis‘ reflects the major conception of the band as a labor of love aimed at funereal sounds, eerie and affected doom given death-weighted, chasmic treatment. Over the course of this ~hourlong delve these folks reap gloom from their pit-buried stance in creation of plodding, distraught and at-times sinister directive… a sound which mires itself in the unreal fuming of funeral doom and surreal death/doom metal fundament by nature but more importantly carries a brilliant study of doom metal rhythms in hand at all times.

Postmortal formed as a quartet during the 2015 edition of the Brutal Assault festival where they’d met and conspired to create a funeral doom metal group inspired by classics from Thergothon, Tyranny and Evoken (among others). As is the case with many bands that only just barely get off the ground there were line-up issues in terms of interest early on as the band came together to write and rehearse at the end of 2017, even playing a couple of gigs in early 2018. The result of their earliest efforts was a debut EP (‘Soil‘, 2018) which were arguably more in the vein of My Dying Bride and I’d say Mourning Beloveth, too stripped down to be considered “gothic” in some sense but also conflicted between death metal outburst and pure doom metal riffs. It was a strong enough EP which I’d praised moderately back in the day with a very brief mention, there was no indication that they’d ever return beyond that point.

Back in 2018 Postmortal were left without a drummer and would end up putting the band on ice ’til 2024, spending their pandemic-adjacent years focusing on nearby death/doom metal project Rites of Daath (who are excellent, check out their debut) as well as a melodic death/doom group Schaderian otherwise. Upon returning from the void vocalist Dawid Dunikowski and guitarist Michał Skupień got to work adapting songs written during the band’s formative period (2015-2018) into their duo configuration and the result is ‘Profundis Omnis‘, an album which is essentially tying up loose ends and unfinished business. The potential they saw in their old work turns out to be well worthy of this resurrection beyond circumstance and for the apt funeral doom and death/doom metal fandom there’ll be a bleak and affecting hourlong record here to delve into herein.

Opener “Fallen” greets us with a hollowed out bassline and a drop into roaring, lumbering death metal grooved verses without hesitation. Leads eventually trail in to add the final gear to their apparatus as all begins to roll and thunder about within the corridor created by Postmortal‘s impossibly vast atmospheric haul. The collapse around ~4:24 minutes in brings a rhythmic shift from paused trepidation toward slowly trampled double-bass beaten slugging and there the odd magick of the band makes its case: Simply presented depth where only the most crucial atmospheric details are deployed for the sake of allowing the breathing room which both death/doom and funeral doom need in order to generate profundity. It is a sound which should appeal to the rhythmic obsession of certain The Funeral Orchestra records just as much as the more patiently set stuff from Ophis. This isn’t all that these folks do on this debut but it will be the right stuff off the bat for patient, keener-eared death/doom metal aficionados.

The first couple of songs on ‘Profundis Omnis‘ operate similarly in the sense that these exaggerations of tempo and timbre are yet centered around riff-drawn doom metal songs in slowed motion and this’ll be a bit more clear in scope as “Darkest Desire” presents a different admixture which is no less imposing but takes on a different rhythmic step and tasks both guitars with some deeper interaction. I’d particularly liked the break around ~6:10 minutes in before the blustering, wah-pedal warped runoff of the song’s endpoint sets it. Again, simple execution within vast sound design only emphasizes the pure doom metal quality of these movements. Though this album might appear stark, certain not as brazen as Rigor Sardonicus by any stretch, the more (or in some cases, less) attentive the listener is the more the tact of Postmortal‘s directive becomes evident. That said the most ‘old school’ funeral doom metal ideation hasn’t fully manifested within the first half hour of the record, at least not entirely just yet.

The peaking ideation and the finest work on ‘Profundis Omnis‘ for my own taste comes with “Prophecy of the Endless” wherein shambling ancient doom riffs and Desecresy-esque atmospheric lead driven eerie present more of Postmortal‘s death/doom metal side. The tunneling descent of the second half of the song is overlong, distraught and humming in its ringing dual guitar trade-offs, ebbing into slow-skronking confound and buzzing torpor as the song drains off into the distance. Though the effect would be hellish if extended much longer the concatenation of the rhythms on this song is arguably the ‘breakthrough’ or most compelling signature extra developed on this album. “Queen of Woe” recreates some of this effect as we move into the more shambling, weaving, and walking-speed saunter of their ouevre. Though these are repetitious, fairly simple scalar movements one’d almost associate with 80’s doom metal (in slow-motion) to some degree they present a palpable state of descent and differing bout of action which keeps this record from redundancy, or, plain uniformity. “Queen of Woe” also arguably incorporates more classic funeral doom traits (see also: the Esoteric-esque glints of the closer, too), albeit hymnally set, in its final third.

What’d appeared to be a bare bones, stripped back death/doom metal album going through the motions at face value ultimately turned out to be an inspired, impactful and immersive debut LP once I’d taken the time to sit and let it ring in mind. The caustic edge of Postmortal is affecting, not outright emotionally cathartic in my experience so much as suffocating in its anxious existential search where dark wonderment and oppressive dread coalesce. I’d reiterate that ‘Profundis Omnis‘ will likely best serve those who’ve patience for funeral doom metal’s earlier dramatic gloom and not just the heavier-handed spectrum of atmospheric death/doom metal. Fans of death/doom metal should definitely check this album out even if it isn’t a recreation of the raw violent outbursts of the early 90’s, otherwise the greater die-hard funeral death/doom metal fandom should appreciate this one most. A moderately high recommendation.

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