Widely regarded as a legend in style, Dutch death/doom metal band Officium Triste has mastered the art of playing emotive yet elegant music and honed its sound even more on its seventh full-length, Hortus Venenum, due on 6 September via Transcending Obscurity Records.

Hortus Venenum is a special album for it celebrates the band's 30th anniversary. It's remarkable that even after so many years, the band continues to develop and improve its already-established sound. The songwriting is surprisingly effective with its disarming simplicity and clean, exquisite tunes soaked in heartfelt emotion, delivered with the kind of sincerity which only comes from years of experience, both as musicians and worldly men. The relatively shorter songs have a sense of immediacy that the previous albums didn't have. Still, their emotional depth is just as strong, if not even stronger. There are tasteful embellishments all over the album without affecting the sense of continuity and cohesiveness; there's diversity without disrupting the overall mood and the music's innate evocative power. With intuitively arranged songs, it's hardly perceptible that Hortus Venenum is Officium Triste's shortest full-length and yet among its most potent ones - the beauty and appeal of the music on this one is nigh unparalleled. Suffice it to say, it's another masterpiece from this band that only seems to get better with age. Link