ALBUM REVIEW: Temple Nightside – Pillars Of Damnation

Australian Blackened Death Metal horde TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE are set to unleash their brand new album via Iron Bonehead Productions on August 7th. This is going to be a heavy one.

Melodic guitars draw in an otherworldly atmosphere to set our journey off with an almost cosmic feel. Doomy guitars drone beneath the warping leads with drums pounding into life. Building into a cascade of contorted riffing and visceral drums with technical lead work, there is a magnificent level of musical ability shown from very early on but with a murky production and much more guttural approach to the music, it bellows with utmost sincerity as the vocalist gurgles and snarls through the instrumental barbarity. Strikingly hard Death Metal ambience permeates the air with a sonic hailstorm of utterly odious and wonderfully dark riffs. It is clear from very early on that we are going to see a pungent and unpredictable onslaught of magnificent proportions.

A volatile dissonance is brought forth by the Black Metal influences on the music giving it a similarly unhinged and unsettling feel to bands like Dead Congregation, Cruciamentum and Grave Miasma while the more technical lead work adds a touch of Gorguts or Ulcerate to the mix. Although the riffs are pleasant in a rather disturbing way, there is no peace to be found here as the drums hammer the savage guitars into your skull while the vocalist ruptures the ear drums with a varied blend of growls and howls that fit the musical obliteration perfectly. Amidst the raw and murky mix, there is plenty of nuance in the furious Black-Death Metal rampage that is presented clearly but not in an overly polished manner, which I am thankful for.

Each track is dripping in a slimy tar that spews and convulses with discordance and crushing precision. The vocalists vomitous gurgles amongst walls of cavernous guitars and stomping drums gives a well rounded and expansive experience to truly be mesmerised by. There is not a second on this record that feels misplaced, only retaining a fantastically huge sound that feels entirely necessary to the greater picture of Temple Nightside’s unique vision. Amidst the vicious blend of Blackened Death Metal there are these doomy breaks that add a monstrous amount of tension and atmosphere to the caustic assaults, elevating the record to even mightier levels of intensity and brutality. This conjures a feverish and frenzied state of anguish during the faster parts on the record.

Not only is this some of the fiercest and most barbaric Blackened Death Metal I have heard recently, it is also some of the most atmospheric and memorable. Venture through disturbing and charnel passages of utterly maniacal songwriting packed with groove, cavernous ambience and eerie technical sections. This album has a monolithic sound that requires total attentiveness, which will be rewarded in turn by an otherworldly, spectral and visceral display of Extreme Metal brilliance like no other. -9/10