Band:	Ossastorium
Album:	Per Aspera...
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	February 05, 2004
Guest review by:	Baliuz

01. Ad Aspera...
02. Liepsnose
03. Requiem
04. Audra
05. Z... [Joke track]
06. Malda (Outro)

A hard kick in the nuts... Yes, this was exactly what I felt like when heard the first second of this album, it caught me totally unprepared. But let's begin for the very beginning. A friend of mine gave me this CD, he said I should definitely check it out. I had heard one sample of their music before, plus I knew Lithuanian scene was stagnant so I didn't expect much. I took the CD ("wow, decent cover artwork"), put it in and pressed PLAY.

Boom! A melodic assault on my senses! But melodic not in the "happy sounding Gothenburg" kind of way, more like doomy, sad way of melodic. After a certain period the riffs evolve into more thrashy sound, the growls enter the song. The growls deserve a compliment, because they do not wander around unpredictably but stick to the music and make it a coherent experience for the listener. Bass is most of the times overwhelmed by the guitars, still in some places you might hear the low sounds clearly enough. And finally, the drums do not blow you away, but they do a great job, some memorable cymbal work, fills and even some enjoyable kick drum work - in the end of "Liepsnose" you might even some kick drum gallops that accompany a melodic riff. Overly the sound is decent, taking into consideration that it was the first release of "Giljotina Records" label. The only drawback is that the main riff of three different tracks has very big similarities. Anyway, the sound is dominated by the guitars and is overly very refreshing and distinguishable.

Lyrics are in Lithuanian with some Latin words such as "Per Aspera Ad Astra" and "Requiem". They might be problem for some people, but since when do metalheads prioritize lyrics? Another example is black metal - a lot of people do not understand what "Norroners tro og skikk" or "Gjennnom den One Dunkle Skog" means anyway but that doesn't prevent them from listening Darkthrone. For those who care - there are no killing, gore or satanism inspired texts here. Everything circles around human-being - hope, disstress, desolation, life cycle. Another phenomenal thing is that Lithuanian language has grammatical cases which are pretty complex and it makes writting the lyrics technichally diffcult. Regardless, there is a lot of rhyme which makes the growls pretty memorable. To get the impression I'll mention what certain song titles mean: "Liepsnose" - "In Flames", "Audra" - "A Storm", "Malda" - "A Prayer".

This MCD has 4 serious tracks, 1 joke track and an instrumental outro. Unfortunately this leaves us desiring for more. The tracks range from 3 to 5 minutes. Tempo is usually fast to mid-paced, sometimes slows down a bit but never reaches hyper-fast. Standouts (both musically and lyrically) are "Ad Aspera" and "Z? (Joke track)". The first is an anthem for hope and determination to start anew. Lyrics are extremely sincere, musically this track is very diverse, has great melodic leads, everything just sounds right. The second one is a joke track because the lyrics are hilarious - first verse is about the happy day of drinking and determination not to stop, the second verse is the effects the day after - headache, stomachache, farting etc. - and a promise not to drink ever again. The sound is thrashier that the rest of the album, the growls are rhymed and very catchy.

A great debut MCD, melodic, interesting, refreshing? We want more!