Sunderland brutalists Osiah are releasing their debut album Terror Firma on June 24 via Siege Music, but Metal Hammer are exclusively streaming it right now! If you’re a fan of deathcore, slamming, and perhaps the bleakest and most horrific album concept of the year, then jam this into your lugholes!
But what on Earth does this album mean? To guide us through Terror Firma, track by track, is vocalist Ricky Lee Roper. It’s not your usual songs about girls or authority figures, it’s much deeper and more theological than that…
Dethronement Of Gods
“Dethronement Of Gods is the first track on the album and the beginning of the concept. It follows the story of Jesus being betrayed by God and given to Satan in Hell, where he is tortured for thousands of years. Eventually he is driven insane and is used as a puppet by Satan to lead his armies of Hell. Jesus – being from Heaven – can enter the gates. Jesus meets his father without much resistance, but compassion cripples God who is ashamed of allowing his son to suffer, and is killed by Jesus. Satan then drinks the blood of God, preparing to spew his hatred upon the Earth.”
Brokden
“Brokden continues by explaining this was a night terror by the protagonist. He lies in semi-consciousness, haunted by the terror of what he experienced, watching night fade back into day. But as the familiar light breaks, a red tinge fills the room instead; blood pours upon the Earth, pounding against windows and flooding the streets. It would seem this is still all a dream until a scream breaks the trance of sleep paralysis and our Protagonist is awoken. His younger sister has fallen ill, as has every other pre-pubescent female child. Lesions break her skin and she falls into a trance, her eyes screaming in pain but the body lifeless. Time does not change anything, no medication helps, and no cure can be found. People blame God, people blame the government, and they blame each other. Some parents choose to try and end their suffering and so with compassion shoot their children in the head – they don’t die. And thus the curse of immortality is revealed to man.”
Street Justice
“Eventually the conspiracy theories, conflicting moralities, and religious bigotry reaches boiling point and riots break out; money has lost its hold on man, and survival as a species once again becomes priority. The armies are brought in to control the peace but quickly side with the anti-government rioters, many of whom have children they want cured. No answers are found and eventually the monarchy and government are slaughtered in the street along with much of the population as anger clouds the mind.”
Harvesting
“With society crippled back into a modern dark age, religion tries to comfort the minds of the weak. Christianity is the conquering religion and the Vatican speaks out as man begs for answers. The answer is to burn the children at the stake, as they are the reflection of man’s sin embodied into our innocent youth. Tens of thousands of crosses are erected outside the Vatican and the sick children are brought to the cross and nailed in place. There they stare at first in pain, but as the fires rise their eyes turn to pity – humanity has reached its lowest point, burning its own over ignorance. As the children burn they suddenly scream, humanity is restored as a cruel joke and they fully feel the pain as they burn. As the fires rise, the surrounding populace choke on the smoke of the infected undead burning children, and as the smoke ascends to the clouds the realisation occurs that now, all humanity is soon to be infected.”
Humanimals
“The smoke of the burning children rises to the clouds, and in a very short time adiabatic cooling occurs – acid rain pours upon the Earth burning all it touches. Our protagonist hides and burrows under the incapacitated bodies to survive. He witnesses first-hand the changes. Due to him having only one lung (as mentioned in the lyrics of Brokden, his other lung is synthetic), he chokes but keeps consciousness as the terraforming begins. He hears children’s cries turn to howling winds as they burn completely to ash. The wind drives the mesomorphic humans on Earth into a frenzied trance, their skin melting from the bone but the virus undergoes a pathogenic evolution and symbiotically alters to their physiques, saving them from melting away into the soil. Our protagonist notices that as the mesomorphs transform into humanimals they become violent and intent only on tearing skin from bone. At this point, the purpose of the virus is revealed, and the whole planet has gained immortality in order to contain every living thing’s spiritual pain in one entity. Our protagonist runs for his life as soon as the rain stops.”
Plague World
“Our protagonist has survived ground zero, and the humanimals begin their hunt for survivors. He feels like he’s dying, and every breath is agony but he continues to hide, fearing for his life. It doesn’t take long before his consciousness gains a voice and he starts lamenting his survival, taunting himself his existence becomes the purest embodiment of suffering. His only hope is to search for a new world, a new life, and such begins a search for Agartha, the world within ours, a slim hope, but it was enough reason to survive. He heads underground, hearing the moans of his fellow humans engulfed in the soil, and the humanimals laugh as they play cat and mouse.”
Conceived Through Ignorance
“Curiosity strikes and our protagonist crawls from the caves back into the world above, but all has changed, the land now is a combination of rotten flesh and soil. Symbiotically combined into something unspeakable, he knows the whole world is in pain, all Earthlings suffering together in perpetual torment, immortality prevents any resolve as the stagnant souls rot. In terror, his eyes look to the sky and see a monolithic beast extending as high as his eyes can see, made of flesh and the plague that has consumed all. With a snarling mouth inhaling the clouds, its tentacles prevent the waves and winds causing an uneasy stillness – hate, fear and pain is all the world has to offer, and so our protagonist goes back underground, to dig.”
Subterrainian Refuge
“Countless decades pass, our protagonist has dug non-stop, in madness he ate the flesh from his hands and ground the bones from his hands, his insatiable hunger and constant pain has kept him in a frenzy as he digs, only talking to the voices in his head. Eventually he stumbles upon caverns filled with a smokey light, and the flesh on his hands return, his hunger ceases and the voices stop, finally, after all this time he is alone. He continues searching the caverns and finds empty streets, with no signs of war, peacefully this populace left, and it’s not long until he notices a giant sealed door. He bangs on the door begging for help and eventually is met by strange giants. Dropping to the ground he explains his situation, explaining that a disease has taken over the Earth. In silence and with indifferent remorse the giants look down and proclaim that they knew all along, because yes, the disease is humanity. They knew, and subsequently were probably responsible, before any more explanation the doors close. Leaving humanity to rot until the stars die.”
Terror Firma is out June 24, via Siege Music.
