Album Premiere: Alghol – The Osseous Key

Upholding that heavy USBM standard with freshly sharpened riffs and arcane atmospheres, one-Mainer black metal band Alghol will release their debut full-length, The Osseous Key, this Saturday, September 18. Under the name Alghol, lone shredder Pete Rodway first made his presence known in April of last year, with the release of the four-song demo, Forgotten Paths. April came and went, but Forgotten Paths stood apart from the ebb and flow, mighty for its focus on melody and strong riffage, as well as an earnest and rather clear production. Unheard of in today’s raw black metal underground and yet Alghol’s demo remained a top seller, both physically and digitally. 

Six months later, Alghol returned with four more songs for a split—one of which, “The Skeletal Key,” foreshadows the debut full-length. But only in name. The split represents Alghol’s rawest material to date. 

The Osseous Key sounds like a continuation of the brilliant Forgotten Paths demo. The time and dedication put into the material streaming below become the listener’s instant and lasting rewards. Meanwhile, artist Logan Hamilton, besides doing the album cover for The Osseous Key, drew eight illustrations that correspond to each track on the album. According to Alghol, they’ve “created [a] booklet as a visual component to accompany the album and as a way to enhance the listening experience.”

Illustration for the opener, “Nocturnal Visions” by Logan Hamilton.

As Alghol recently told Decibel via email, “I’ve always liked albums that feel like a cohesive piece of work. I’m also a massive King Diamond fan, and I love the storytelling aspect of his albums. My goal with The Osseous Key was to try and incorporate these elements and create something that I would want to sit down and listen to, start to finish. I also wanted to try and find a nice balance with the production value. I think this album is definitely a step up in terms of sound quality in relation to my previous releases, but still manages to retain plenty of atmosphere and feeling that comes with some of the more raw styles of black metal. Overall, I’m super pleased with how the album came together, and think it’s a really good representation of the direction I’d like to take with this project. This album is what Alghol is supposed to sound like.”

The Osseous Key

 

Get The Osseous Key on CD from Geistraum Records and on cassette from Knekelput.