Officium Triste just released their fourth opus titled “Giving Yourself Away” and this performance was the CD release gig, a.k.a the CD presentation. It also coincided with the departure of their guitarist Johan, for whom this was his last gig with Officium Triste. And this happening took place in the rehearsal room of Officium Triste, which also has a small stage and a bar. Unlike most metal gigs I attend, the hall is typically dark with black walls and back drop. Not here however, the venue is rather light with white walls. Further there are many artifacts attached to the walls and ceiling, mostly of musical instruments. Moreover, even the venue is small, it can hold maybe 100 people, it wasn’t full at all.

Back to the music. The support slot was filled by the Belgian metal band Serpentcult. This band was formerly known as Thee Plague of Gentlemen, but they broke up as their singer, guitarist was arrested for child-rape. The other band members formed this band and got themselves a new singer. After a long intro of apparently random guitar noise, they started their groovy doom metal, which is generally rather fast for doom. The new singer, a girl, has a rather high, thin vocal style, which I’m not too fond of. And musically it’s very similar to TPOG, for which I never cared much either.

Then it was time for Officium Triste after a quick change of set-up. The opening tracks were old songs, “The Pathway” and “The Sun Doesn’t Shine Anymore” of respectively the albums “The Pathway” and “Reason”, as singer Pim said to warm up the audience. Then they nearly played the entire new album except the final song, which is a bit different from the rest of the album anyway and concluded their regular set with the song “Goodbye” which was dedicated to their guitarist Johan. During the break a couple of old photos were displayed on a large screen while the odd Officium Triste song “Happy Forest” was played (from CD). Then followed by an encore of four more tracks, starting with the song “Stardust” of the debut album followed by two more songs of “Reason”, namely “In Pouring Rain” and “This Inner Twist”. The final song was a cover by Anathema, titled “Sleepless”. Despite some sound issues every now and again, with the balance of the instruments being lost, Officium Triste played a very steady show.