Ossuary / The Crushing Crushing Death/Doom Mastery Of Abhorrent Worship

Wisconsin’s Death Metal trio Ossuary are not a band that constantly churn releases out. It has taken a full ten years for them to be ready to drop their debut full-length Abhorrent Worship. However, during that period, it does not mean they have been idle. Ossuary have released a few tantalising offerings and toured furiously, all the while perfecting their craft. For anyone who has been patiently waiting for this moment, you will not be disappointed, as Abhorrent Worship is a crushing beast of an album.

Ossuary – Abhorrent Worship 

Release Date: 23 May 2025

Words: Jools Green

Abhorrent Worship delivers six weighty tracks, two of which featured on the 2023 Forsaken Offerings EP and four new pieces. Spanning thirty-seven minutes of raw, crawling and cavernous, all-engulfing, filthy Death/Doom, this lurches towards you at a menacing slow to mid-pace.

There is a sound that vaguely echoes early Autopsy, just as a point of reference. But in reality, it goes far beyond that.

Ossuary - Abhorrent Worship—a decade in the making, this crushing Death/Doom debut merges bleak atmosphere with feral intensity.
Ossuary – Abhorrent Worship—a decade in the making, this crushing Death/Doom debut merges bleak atmosphere with feral intensity.

What makes this release stand out for me above many other Death/Doom offerings is guitarist/vocalist Izzi Plunkett’s vocals. They are not immediately what you might expect from a band of this genre.

Izzi delivers something altogether different and unexpected, a superb fear-instilling meld of well-protracted, higher-end growls that have more of a Black Metal leaning.

They are my absolute favourite aspect of this album and quite possibly some of the best vocals I have heard in a long while.

Saying that, there is a whole lot more to love about this album and nothing to dislike whatsoever. Time, effort and talent have clearly been lavished upon these fetid, dripping and suffocatingly evil offerings that deliver a relentless and pummelling assault upon your senses. 

Opening with Volitional Entropy, where pulsating dark ambient keys build and merge into ominous, plodding riffs, the vocals arrive with a blood-curdling scream. They expand out to more acidic, powerfully protracted higher growls and screams alongside the ever-building riffage, pounding bass lines and strong, precise drum beats.

The result is truly cavernous, and as the pace picks up, the sound swirls around you, engulfing your senses and fading back out to a drone at the close. A superb listening experience.

Next up is Inborn Scourge Unbound, which continues to overload your senses. The riffs take on a more spiralling aspect, while the vocals are more acidic and, again, superbly protracted. I love how this piece twists and writhes as it progresses.

Midway, the vocals, completely enshrouded in a tangle of swirling riffs, let out a blood curdling deep scream. The pace ebbs back, but the vocals remain tormented and vitriolic. You also get a repeated burst of very ominous, sinister riffing that punctuates the already oppressive atmosphere. An absolutely stunning piece.

The next piece, Forsaken Offerings (To The Doomed Spirit) is the first of two that featured on the Forsaken Offerings EP. An ominous and dark crawler, this track engulfs everything in its path. The vocals soar above the guitar and drum work with menace while the pace mostly ebbs and builds around a slow, smothering crawl. This intensifies the dense, intense and suffocating atmosphere, although the pace does build to a rampage near the close. Again fading out on a drone, this is a track that sends a wonderful shiver down your spine. 

The sharp opening squeal of guitar strings is a sudden shock to the system on Instinctual Prostration. After being comfortably engulfed by Ossuary’s sound, fear not. The smothering wave of riffs are soon all engulfing once more, as well as delivering some quite sharp punctuation.

This is a feature which sits so well with the downright vitriolic and evil vocals that swirl menacingly between them. You get a gradual building of pace in the second half, which intensifies the mood considerably, and again, those vocal protractions throughout are stunningly impressive.  

The next piece, The Undrownable Howl Of Evil, is the second track featured on the Forsaken Offerings EP. A drone builds to an ear-splitting sear for the opening, followed by pounding but rather groovy rhythms and unnerving vocals. This is a piece that is evil and catchy in equal measures, and you even get a burst of bleak, dark leadwork towards the close. You cannot ask for better than that.

The Undrownable Howl Of Evil melds seamlessly into the final piece, Barren Lamentation. The album monster at over eight minutes duration, drone builds into an ear-splitting reverberation. The riffs are deathly slow and the vocal protractions slightly distant which adds to their menacing edge.

This is bleak on an epic scale. It does build slowly in gradual sinister increments and develops more complexity towards the close, including searing leadwork. But it always maintains the menacing atmosphere and becomes increasingly engulfing, fading out to that all-familiar drone one final time.

Abhorrent Worship is a superbly atmospheric, all-encompassing listen. If you fancy something smothering, bleak and cavernous, you will thoroughly enjoy this release. I think it is excellent.

Ossuary release Abhorrent Worship via Darkness Shall Rise Productions (CD & MC) / Me Saco Un Ojo Records (LP) on 23 May 2025. For more details, you can find the band on Instagram here.

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