Band:	Throne (ITA)
Album:	Ossarium
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	February 14, 2025
A review by:	musclassia

01. Morrigan
02. Blind Agony
03. Aten
04. Tortura
05. The All Father
06. Psychostasia

After an 8-year absence, Throne (ITA) emerge from the catacombs to reclaim their mantle.

Forming in 2012, this sludge act swiftly dropped debut album Avoid The Light in the same year, but have been more patient with their subsequent release cycles; Consecrates arrived 5 years later, and it took almost a decade after for record number three to arrive. The first release from the band on Dusktone Records, Ossarium maintains Throne (ITA)’s sludgy roots, but represents an evolution and advancement from their last record.

While exhibiting some variety, Consecrates predominantly delivered the kind of swaggering bluesy sludge most associated with the early days of the genre. In contrast, Ossarium is the kind of sludge album that evolved afterwards, branching out in multiple different directions to good effect. Doomy and ponderous at its core, it can both up the ante by delving into deathly buzzsaw extremity or expand its horizons with post-metal structures and melodic atmospheric elements. With all such elements enhanced by a solid production job, album number three represents a significant improvement over its predecessor.

The early stages of the record features more of the album’s darker and harsher songs and moments. “Morrigan” is gloomy from the off, stomping with doomy bleakness accompanied by the guttural roars that dominate the album vocally; there are faint atmospheric hints in the initial mix, but around 2 minutes in Throne (ITA) unleash a devastating death/doom riff powered by thundering double bass. Said riff is reprised again within the song, alternating with sludgier grooves; right from the off, following track “Blind Agony” coalesces sludge venom and bleaker extremity for a menacing introduction to the song. It subsequently slows down, and in doing so demonstrates how effectively Throne (ITA) craft ponderous black-tinged doomy passages. The most overt aggression across Ossarium arrives in the following track; “Aten” accompanies the buzzsaw riffing with brief onslaughts of blasts, and the guitar tone in general on this song feels most closely reminiscent of death metal out of anything heard across the album.

Despite their malice, throughout the first two tracks, there are subtle nuances within the instrumental textures that reveal a greater depth to the band’s writing, but it isn’t until near the end of “Blind Agony” that are more obvious change in approach occurs, with a brief cleaner interlude temporarily breaking up the barrage of thick distortion. “Aten” largely eschews any subtlety, but its conclusion marks a general shift in tone for the remainder of the record. “Tortura” opens with lighter, cleaner tonality more commonly employed by post-metal bands, and from this point onwards Ossarium prioritizes the dynamics of this genre over the extremity previously featured.

There’s still a cavernous fire to the heavier stretches of the songs, particularly due to the roaring vocals, but Throne (ITA) start to regularly weave in melodic guitar motifs, and tom-led drumming midway into “The All Father” fully commits the band to a more post-metal-oriented style, leading the song into dynamic trudging and calmer lulls. “Psychostasia” takes this even further, breaking up its lumbering sludge riffs with a prolonged cleaner passage midway through; however, even at this point Throne (ITA) maintain darkness, as the guitar layers within this passage, in tandem with eerie background synths, conjure a tone of ominous malevolence that feels more like the calm before the storm rather than any means of escape.

While I do fundamentally enjoy the classic post-metal song template, I generally find that the stronger albums in the style these days offer something to step outside of the genre’s most well-trodden confines. In gradually working towards elements of the style from a bleak, imposing, extreme-tinged form of sludge, Throne (ITA) reap the benefits of dabbling with post-metal while avoiding some of the potential pitfalls. Ossarium is a fierce, fiery slab of sludge enhanced by tastefully-incorporated dynamics from both ends of the spectrum, and it reflects a substantial growth on the part of the band’s writing in the preceding few years.