Rating: 8.0

Country: Poland

Release Date: 2008

Record Label: Redrum 666

Track list:
1. Montem Olivarum
2. Tu Es Rex Judaeorum
3. Passio
4. ....Et Mors

Total playing time 38:01

Band Website: Gallileous

Gallileous - Passio Et Mors...

Daga - piano
Mirek - drums , vocals
Cebull - bass
Stona- Guitars
Wino - Guitar, Vocal

It so turns out that this band Gallileous recorded a funeral-ish death/doom demo way back in 1994. With Thergothon's raging posthumous success in mind, the wise one at Redrum 666 Records thought it would be a good idea to put it on CD and also wake the band up from its prolonged stupor to record something new for today's more-depressed-than-ever-before doom fans. Or maybe it was the other way around with the band members thinking that a re-release of their demo would be a good promotional idea before their full length came out. Either fucking way, I thought this would be a boring half-baked miserable sounding demo pressed on CD for me to sit my ass down and review it. I was wrong, and I couldn't be happier about it (you know I mean sad).

“Montem Olirarum…” opens with a haunting keyboard segment (nice touch) and it is not long before its gloomy doom/death music floods my white plastered room with suffocating darkness, casting a palpable shadow on my underwear in use. For it to do that it must sound quite good, and it surprisingly does – full sounding, deep as a dry well, and sufficiently reverb-drenched. Musically, it is Thergothon mixed with Winter, and that's more than enough for you to wallow in self-pity for half an hour. Long though the song expectedly is, around the four minute mark a beautiful melody seeps in, and then nearing the 6 minute mark haunting keyboards make a reappearance to inject some feel to the almost lifeless music (which is good). Three minutes into “…In Es Rex Judeaorum” , the music throbs with faster, almost death metal sounding parts, which brings Rigor Sardonicus to mind, and in the same song the music slows down considerably, pausing almost as if to catch its breath, and then finally around the seven minute mark, plodding with some emotional quotient a la As the Flower Withers era My Dying Bride takes place.

“Passio…” is another long-drawn sluggish affair where you are most likely to admire the vocals for sounding so deep, desiccated and slightly guttural even. Here too, the music gets unbearably slow in the middle (again a good thing, I guess), even making you restless while the sludgy riffs make your head churn slowly from within. Devoid of any real feelings except for the MDB-esque emotive lead towards the end, this song takes a heavy toll on your health. In the start of “…Et Mors” there are slow pounding beats that send a shudder of dread down your spine to your anus. Evocative of early MDB, the riffing in this song is tuneful and mingled with emotions, not like the stubborn sludge that is dug into as in their other songs. It culminates with a slow, truly moving tune that you try and develop as your last memory of this demo but you are rudely jarred by a scary keyboard part, the outro I suppose.

Passio Et Mors… is a surpassingly good demo, in that it is really good and has by far surpassed my expectations of it. For Gallileous to have such large and heavy doom/death balls dangling way back then is very commendable and I am almost emotional thinking about how long this piece of recording has remained obscured before finally seeing the light of the day (and subsequently darkening it). I urge you to pick this heavyweight demo up, and while you're down there (where you should be following your latest purchase), also look out for their upcoming full length album.

April 30th, 2007