Officium Triste is a doom / death metal band from from the area of Rotterdam. And it is time for their annual gig in the Baroeg and this time head lining it again. Three other bands were found to support them. And much to my surprise the sound was quite good the whole evening – that doesn’t happen that often.

The first band of the evening were the Finnish My Shameful, who have just released their second full-length. I wasn’t very impressed by their older album “…Of Dust”, mostly because it was quite redundant and not very inspired. And that is largely the same view I have of their gig. Although they had some interesting passages in the songs and they played there just was something missing.

The second band of the evening was a local band named In Age and Sadness. I had seen this band before and my impression then was that they weren’t very interesting. They play some sort of doom death metal with many progressive influences, which they play quite well, but couldn’t impress me a bit. Most of the time these guys were just standing looking uninterested and playing their instrument.

Thirdly was the gloom rock band Jack Frost which was quite the opposite of the previous band. These guys were really enthusiastic and that conveyed on the audience as well. It is not entirely my kind of music, as it is too much slow rock and too little metal. Nevertheless what they played they played well.

Finally, it was time for Officium Triste, who were in the process of recording a new album. However, they started with a couple of songs of their previous albums. Singer Pim seems to be more enthusiasted and active on stage than ever before. Despite some minor playing errors, this was a pretty good show and one of the better ones of them I have seen, which is 6 thus far. Two new songs were included in the set, for which Pim brought lyrics sheets on stage to assist him. It seems that they are heading in a somewhat different direction again and I am not sure what to think of it – not that these were terrible songs, but I guess I just have to get used to it.

Setlist:

1. This Inner Twist
2. In Pouring Rain
3. Stardust
4. Roses on my Grave
5. Your Eyes
6. The Pathway
7. The Sun Doesn’t Shine Anymore
8. Encore: Charcoal Heart