Artist: Ossian
   Title: The Slow Fade Of Loving Things
   Label: Xtreme Risng

This is the second full length release from Italy’s Ossian.  The band have been around for some ten years and finally found a label worthy of the Ossain name, Italian label Xtreme - Rising, a subsidiary of Rising Works Records.

The band has a raw sound that is perhaps more associated with the underground British metal scene.  They deliver hard uncompromising metal that covers many of the genres.

The album begins with the strangely titled ‘The Place Of Strawberries’, which is pure nu-metal with its tuned out guitars and heavy bass. Then it's into the heavier stuff with ‘In Vitriol’, a track that is as extreme as it is brash, and then it's back to the more emo soundings of the title track ‘The Slow Fade Of Loving Things’.

Things go into the realms of Death Metal with ‘Incorpereal’, a really hard hitting track that rates as one of the most impressive on the whole album.

But if I had to pick a favourite track then it would have to be the bone crushing ‘By Your Own Hand’ just for its complexity and monstrous guitars.

With all the to-ing and fro-ing between different genres it's hard remember what sort of mindset I was in when I started reviewing this album.

The album shows the band has many different persona’s and showcases their deliberate intention's not to be pigeon holed into one genre or another.  Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing marketing wise we shall have to wait and see.

The album is a complex beast that refuses to let you define it, so I won't even try.  The remaining track is as mixed up as the previous ones with hardcore metal meeting thrash and nu-metal competing with industrial mosh riddled metal!

If you like to here something different and fresh then you’ve got to check out Ossain.  They will have something to please all ... you just have to delve around the album a little to find it.

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