The third studio album after five years gap for this Catalan troupe, but not a band I’ve locked horns with previously I’m afraid. Still, I’ve been in a noisy mood recently it seems so another bit of deathgrind it is then.

‘Cavalcant L’Ossa Menor’ has no preamble, no by-your-leave. Instead, it goes straight for the face, talons out. It’s an impressive statement of intent in many ways; fast, brutal, uncompromising with the odd tempo shift if a little generic. ‘Tot Crema’ has a little more grind and a little more character for me, some variation added alongside the death vocals and the slower section with a quieter but intense passage kind of brings odd memories of early Integrity strangely. I guess there is a certain touch of that post-hardcore/noise kind of feel in places which is pretty cool. The beginning of ‘L’Engany’ exemplifies this; a deep!y apocalyptic feel crawling through the slower section before a dull on battering death metal assails us.

There are also the odd bit of industrial sounds here. Mostly though they are more interstices rather than actual parts of the song though.

‘El Pes Del Buit’ again begins with a slow introduction, a fine sludge sound before again they hit the accelerator.

I guess its somewhere around here that I realise their slower style, particularly when they drop to Corrupted levels of crawl, that grabs me much more. They have character and interest. I’m afraid that the faster sections and songs, particularly those that rely more on the death side, end up leaving me a bit punch drunk and things become a blur.

I mean this is the potential issue with music like this after all but here it ends up with an album feeling far longer than it actually is. We get nine tracks with most around the four to five minute mark which is well under forty five minutes but it just… feels too long. Which is a shame as when it does grab me it is very good indeed. Osserp are a good band, they have the capacity to shift things up and down with ease but on this album I found too much of the speeding deathgrind a bit indistinct. Oh it rips, absolutely, but it does the same trick six or seven times and I simply end up defeated.

If you can take the wind tunnel blast though give it a good hard look because when they are good they are very good.

(6/10 Gizmo)

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