Dealing in none-more-brutal death-grind, Osserp hail from Barcelona and have, since 2013, unleashed two EP/split releases and two full-length albums – 2015’s Sang I Sutge and 2017’s Al Meu Pas S’Alca La Mort. Their diligence has paid off, because the quality of Els Nous Cants De la Sibil-La (loosely translated as The New Songs Of The Sibil) is high indeed – the result of years spent honing ferocious skills to a finely bladed point. Both in terms of musical ability and compositional skill, the album packs a monumental punch and, over the course of nine tracks, the band stake their claim as a force to be reckoned with in the extreme metal firmament.
Osserp don’t fuck around. Cavalcant L’Ossa Menor detonates like a high explosive round, recalling the likes of Dying Fetus shot through with icy shards of Napalm Death circa Harmony Corruption. Not that it’s one dimensional. Given the extremity on display, the band still find time to slow the pace, adding a further dark groove to the pummelling nightmare, and it makes for one hell of an opening cut. Tot Crema maintains the high standards and even throws in some unexpected shade, as a creeping, atmospheric guitar line provides a moment’s respite amidst the towering riffs and throat-wrenching screams. Taking a darker turn L’engany throws hints of doom into the mix, although the hulking great riffs are still battered by relentless blast beats, and the track gains a poisonous momentum as it progresses. Steadfastly refusing to simply pursue the same idea over and over, Osserp change things up again, allowing a touch of industrial to creep into the intro to the lengthy El Pes Del Buit, a brutal, menacing slab of death metal that feels like the soundtrack to the most appalling survival horror game. Persevere and a gnarly grind emerges, but only after the band have comprehensively rearranged your nerve endings. It’s a masterclass in dynamics, drawing from the likes of Pig Destroyer, and it’s an album highlight. After such a monumental outpouring, the shorter and rather more direct L’Abracada Del Desti eschews subtlety to simply rip the listener’s still-beating heart from their twitching cadaver via a succession of grinding riffs and savage percussive blasts.
After a first half that maintained both pace and interest, the second half has much to live up to. It kicks off with the aggressive L’Home En El Laberint, a strangely catchy beast that, for all its aggression, adopts a solid groove that inserts its claws into the brain and maintains its grip for its four-minute duration. Throw in some blistering lead guitar (courtesy of Gerard from Haemophagia) and you have a track that firmly snares the listener. Up next, La Remora is churning death metal clad in feedback-strewn grind armour, before El Rival Mes Fort emerges to up the ante, the band unleashing a gruelling hellscape of roiling riffs and animalistic grunts. For closing number Lluna Negra, Gerard returns to add yet more blistering lead to a track that neatly draws the album to its end. A brilliant finale, the band truly saved the best for last, and it’s nothing short of astonishing that, after an album of such quality, Osserp still manage to push it over the top with one last stunning assault. From the lead work to the neck-snapping groove, it’s a work of demonic genus and it leaves the listener rather in awe at the levels of self-discipline and quality control on display.
Music this brutal is for but a select few, but for those who worship at the altar of extremity, Els Nous Cants De La Sibil-La is a crushing masterclass in what a properly motivated and talented band can do. Impressively, despite the unhinged levels of ferocity, Els Nous… is a varied effort, with high standards of musicianship applied from the outset and the results are consistently impressive. Available digitally via the band’s Bandcamp page, there really is no excuse – this is a stunning effort that deserves its place in any self-respecting metalhead’s collection. 9/10
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