Osculum Infame is a French black metal band who has for some reason attracted the enmity of the local Black Legions. I will not go to guess the reasons for this, though I would note that their sound isn’t very militantly uncommercial. In fact, some of their synth orchestrations could be from the fuckin Titanic soundtrack!

The music of Osculum Infame presents the epic and melancholy side of black metal, as opposed to the side of hate and war. Oh, if you are wondering, there is still a lot of hate left in this music, especially in the vocals that have, for once, been paid attention to in the mixing and are thus enabled to unleash their full range of evil in the production. The vocals aren’t special or surprising, but very consistent and held in a good control… if we live to see academically trained black metal singers, this will be what they sound like! The speed varies from a blast to rather slow moments to allow for the dramatic wanderings on the keyboard. The melodies are sad and if you get past their occasional boring and predictable softness, construct an epic realm of dark fantasy. The music, all in all, is mature and it shows that a lot of time and attention has been paid to it. And it is probably this maturity that lifts it above wanna-be black metal and commerciality, into musical spheres where inspiration interacts free from limitations, to create individualism and METAL. This is one of those albums that will be appreciate more as "metal" than "black metal" because these ideas are escapist and entertaining, rather than constructive or destructive… an imaginary journey into the realms of shadow, rather than a deep descent into the abyss of the shadow-self, as seen in the creations of Darkthrone or Burzum.

© 1999 black hate