Terrestrial Hospice was formed in 2018 as a collaboration between Azarath/Behemoth drummer Inferno and Tortorum guitarist/drummer Skyggen. Despite how busy the two have been in other projects, Terrestrial Hospice has put out material on a regular basis and over the course of eight years now has three full lengths alongside two EPs. Since their formation the emphasis has been on black metal that goes for the throat from beginning to end, channeling a significant amount of the Norwegian second wave sound along with elements that recalled Poland’s earlier black metal. This year’s Omnicide - Chapter I finds Terrestrial Hospice once again leaving behind nothing but scorched earth, but they’ve written slightly longer tracks that are more dynamic than you might be expecting.
Efforts like 2023’s Cavalry to the General had already started to showcase that Terrestrial Hospice had a bit more substance to their music compared to the average second wave influenced act that offered little more than constant blast beats and predictable transitions. Omnicide - Chapter I pushes their writing further, letting the majority of the songs stretch past the six-minute mark and using that time to bludgeon the listener in a variety of ways. Black metal albums that hit the fifty to hour run time sometimes overstay their welcome and later songs lose some of their identity, but despite that being an initial concern after having listened to Omnicide - Chapter I’s fifty-two-minute run quite a few times it feels like it flies by quickly and holds your attention throughout. Even a track like “Menace” which is just shy of nine minutes does a lot with that span of time, opting for a dense wall of all-out blasting where the guitar and bass form a whirlwind approach, but it slows things down for a moodier mid-tempo section a little before the halfway mark that lets the bass take the spotlight. Then it’s back to blasting for a bit, but the drums have a more militaristic cadence to them, and things finish off with another mid-tempo section where the guitars sound like they’re descending into a deep, dark pit. Inferno delivers a lot of varied rhythms when it comes to the drumming, as while there are plenty of the usual blasts on display songs like “Phosphoric Salvation” and “The Couloir of Despair” have some unexpected groove to them that are quite catchy despite their jagged edges. At times the approach reminds me of some of the rock ‘n roll and punk edges of Taake, as the guitars run wild and offer plenty of twists and turns from song to song, but Terrestrial Hospice takes it in a slightly different direction. Also worth noting are the intros on “Phosphoric Salvation” and “The Gospel of Obedience”, as the former has a very effective acoustic guitar build-up that hints at the coming destruction while the latter leads off with piano that feels more like its portraying the ruination the band has left in their wake.
Skyggen’s vocals are another element that give Terrestrial Hospice an edge over some of the other black metal out there, as his screams and growls have a more rabid and consistently intense tone that don’t let up until the album has come to a close. Tracks like “Call of the Void” are a great example, as the raspy screams break through the wall of sound created by the instrumentals and grab you by the throat. Even when the band lets off the gas slightly towards the end of the song the vocals remain razor sharp, coming in as creepier echoed spoken word and distorted screams that keep the tension at a high. You’ll also hear some much higher shrieks and other subtle adjustments in pitch that make the performance feel just a bit more dynamic than is typical for the genre, and this goes a long way in giving Omnicide - Chapter I the amount of impact it has.
Album number three from Terrestrial Hospice doesn’t radically change anything they’ve been doing since 2018, but it refines the attack and continues to showcase that Skyggen and Inferno have the writing chops to justify longer song lengths without falling into repetition. This is one of those albums that achieves constant tension without the need to rely entirely on blast beats the whole way through, and with songs that have their own identity it’s a second half of 2026 highlight that fans of everything Polish or Norwegian black metal related will want to check out. The Chapter I designation also suggests a second part at some point, so it will be interesting to hear where the band goes from here. Omnicide - Chapter I is available from Edged Circle Productions.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg