ALBUM REVIEW: Perdition Temple – Malign Apotheosis

Tampa blackened death metal horde Perdition Temple return with their fifth full length album of caustic blasphemies. Out via Hells Headbangers on November 28th.

Vitriolic riffing and blast beats fire into an aural assault of hellfire with macabre vocals spewing venomous bile through the mix. Everything is technical, tight and refined with the musicianship as impeccable as ever while still feeling authentic and dark. The cleverly used hooks pierce the fleshy barbaric torment. Scathing lead guitars blister the skin and finalise the all-consuming onslaught of death. Those unfamiliar with Perdition Temple will be dumbfounded by the relentless nature of the music, while most underground fiends will be very familiar with Gene’s work. As a prolific guitarist whose name has always been associated with lacerating quality in the death metal underground, his riffing here is as powerful as ever. Ron and Alex make up the rhythm section on drums and bass respectively and both are also musicians with a mass of impressive credits. This trinity of maniacs clearly use their huge catalogue of experience to enforce the most militant and precise display of morbidity possible. From the battering savagery to the malevolent grooves; the opening of “Malign Apotheosis” will split the wolves from the sheep, dare you venture on?

Each twisted piece of abhorrence juts grotesquely forth from the album. Forging ever forward into the darkest abysses, the tension builds while keeping this consistent toughness to the whole sound. They manage enough variation to keep you on your toes while still keeping it pure, diabolical and intense at all times. There is a heavy amount of Angelcorpse feeling in this music, unsurprisingly, but plenty of its own character that harnesses thrashing wildness and rides into hellfire bareback on old metallic grandiosity. This is what death metal should be, a pure and malicious distillation of extreme 80s thrash taken that one step further. Perdition Temple requires no gimmicks or trickery, only total witching metal fury to take you into bloodstained kingdoms. There is this martial rhythmic feeling to the entire record that makes your knuckles itch for violence and your spirit crave desecration. The invocations of evil are certainly palpable. Agh the corruption of your soul is inescapable!

Bellowing with feverish distillations of darkness until its climax, this record is maelstrom of obliteration that is as merciless as it is intoxicating. The precision of the sharpened blade this band has become is enough to strip flesh from bone while the atmosphere is never forgotten; ensuring the swelling fumes of Hades never lose their suffocating quality. This is definitely some of the bands strongest material for me with “The Tempter’s Victorious” being my all time favourite, this feels of equally high calibre. For 34 minutes, this thing will rip you limb from limb with a lesson in violence you won’t soon forget. From the cracking low end bass that will turn skulls to powder to the rib spreading drum assault, the ferocious riffing and solos have plenty of demonic company as the trio rides across a field of corpses to spew their unholy blasphemies. No weak links, no out of place experimentation, just pure punishing death metal magnificence.

Perdition Temple purges you of all holy virtue and weakness with their new destructive opus. Twisted riffs and crushing percussion utilise a technical but still brutish and pugnacious attack of death metal might. The snarling vocals and swirls of instrumental malignancy will pull you into the fiery sulphurous pits for its totality and spit out the husk that remains. A powerhouse of musical torment mixed to inflict maximum damage and bloodshed. This is death metal for those who haven’t been softened by modern bastardisations that dilute the spirit of the music for weakling consumption. Dance in the carrion showers of decay for an eternity of ecstatic suffering…