From the off you get the vibe that there’s something a bit different about Ossuary’s latest release. The clue lies in the sleeve’s lavish gold tones and odd, Art Deco-ish artwork – aspects that stand at a marked remove from most modern death metal releases. This ostentatious presentation is mirrored by the music itself, which booms forth with morbid grandiosity as soon as needle hits wax: there’s a sense of the vast and chasmic, as though it were recorded in a mausoleum or, perhaps, a deconsecrated church.
While the band’s death metal tends toward the doom-laden, this isn’t a typical, shit-slicked belly-crawl. Instead things press forward with a regal, processional gait that’s more in tune – psychically, if not sonically – with Asunder and Morgion than the fetid slime of Autopsy. Percussive detonations flatten the land so that riffs can be raised like intricately-carved pillars honouring an ancient, profane idol. Izzi Plunkett’s vocals are the perfect accompaniment to the foul majesty of the music: varied and expressive, a mucosal creak or dank splutter one moment, the next a devastating, sky-darkening roar.
A vital and essential release, ‘Abhorrent Worship’ might invoke a deep sense of deathly terror, but it also feels thoroughly and inarguably alive.