Temple Nightside - The Hecatomb

Artist: Temple Nightside
Release Title: The Hecatomb
Year: 2016
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Genre: Old-School Black/Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Graven
2. Adrift in Sepulchral Entropy
3. Ossuary (Commune 3.1)
4. Fortress of Burden and Distress
5. The Murderous Victor (Commune 3.2)
6. Within the Arms of Nothingness
7. Tempest
8. Burial Adoration (Commune 3.3)
9. Charnel Winds

After a massive debut effort, Australian black/death metallers Temple Nightside has spent the three years since not only honing their craft but also swelling in members, growing from an initial duo into a quartet now. With mainman IV the only hold-over and surrounding himself with new members in second guitarist BR, bassist V. Kusabs and drummer Mordance, this second full-length is released August 5, 2016 on Iron Bonehead Productions.

Much like their previous effort, the sound here is one of old, slumbering beasts slowly rising to overtake the world and is a perfectly apt description here. The main rhythms are based around deep, churning low-slung riff-work that effectively plods along here while employing a vast amount of sprawling, darkened patterns which create a swarming mixture of death, doom and black metal elements throughout here. The cavernous approach and churning riffing within the dark tremolo arrangements give it a more old-school blackened death metal style approach that comes off rather sinister-sounding in conjunction with the murky production job. That leaves the slower tempos to really showcase the churning patterns quite well with the churning patterns getting to take up plenty of room within the arrangements that brings out their sludgy atmospherics quite nicely here and acts as a great balance to the selected up-tempo arrangements that are featured within here. While on the whole the music works solidly in it’s vile, churning ways the fact that the album seems to get interrupted by a variety of brief, bland instrumental tracks is really where it seems to stutter somewhat. The fact that they range from barely thirty seconds to two minutes makes for some questionable nature as to their inclusion, especially when they don’t really set up the following track and two of them are back-to-back only broken up by one’s follow-up track and it halts the momentum of the middle section somewhat because of the cramped nature of these confusion efforts. Still, that’s really the only big problem on the album as the rest of it works solidly.

Though hampered by one small rather odd inclusion where it’s little instrumental interludes seem too oddly inserted into the overall running order and packed together too closely to let their effect sink in, there’s still a whole lot to really enjoy about this one that makes it a solid choice for old-school black or death metal fanatics who salivate over this type of material.

Score: 89/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/temple-nightside-the-hecatomb

Decrepit Soul - The Coming of War!!

Artist: Decrepit Soul
Release Title: The Coming of War!!
Year: 2016
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Genre: Black/Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Awaken
2. Feral Howling Winds
3. The Coming of War
4. Perished in Flames
5. Piscatorial Death
6. Black Goats Breath
7. Storm of Steel

The second full-length from Aussie war metallers Decrepit Soul shows that the quick turnaround between albums isn’t a sap on their creativity but rather their general approach. This one here is still filthy, ravenous war metal which features that dirty blackened death metal approach, firing off utterly frenetic swirling tremolo riffing at such ferocious speeds it blends into a dirty buzz-like blur such is the speed they play these arrangements. Augmented really nicely with the addition of a solid mid-tempo death-metal lurch that settles very nicely into an appropriately mid-range sprawling-style patterns for what could be considered melodic interludes off-setting the tight, furious main rhythms on display which are still far more dominant on the album. With this all blazing alongside the utterly pummeling drumming that keeps this one charging along the album creates a truly dirty, blasphemous sound amidst the chaos. This one isn’t really all that varied or differential in it’s approach as there’s just so little work here with the short running time really not affording this one the opportunity to branch out or delivery some variety beyond that mid-tempo churn. Utilizing such an abbreviated set-list here doesn’t really allow for much chance to do much beyond infernal blasting, which works nicely but can make this somewhat one-dimensional at times.

The first half here sets this one up incredibly well. Opener ‘Awaken’ uses a sampled approaching-storm intro that turns into ravenous drumming and blasting, tightly-wound rhythms keeping the frenetic tremolo riffing scalding along through the savage tempo changes as the furious paces gives way to a mid-tempo sprawl leading back into the furious pounding in the final half for an impressive opening effort. ‘Feral Howling Winds’ features rattling tremolo riffing and steady drumming turning into a frantic burst of furious blasting and tight, intense rhythms carrying the swirling rhythms along into ravenous buzzing patterns leading into the swarming riff-work and intense blasting in the final half for a stellar highlight. The title track utilizes frenetic blasting drumming and swirling tremolo riffing into a frantic, intense blast full of blistering up-tempo paces carrying the buzzing tremolo riff-work alongside the blistering drumming as the screeching leads whip through the extended-noise finale for an impressive and dynamic if one-note offering. ‘Perished in Flames’ uses a slow-building intro with plenty of melodic rhythms through a fine mid-tempo buzzing riff-work leading into the tight, furious blasting and swirling tremolo rhythms firing through scalding tempos with frantic leads into the solo section and into the relaxing final half for a solid, enjoyable effort.

The second half carries the quality of this incredibly well. ‘Piscatorial Death’ takes the storm-cloud intro before gradually coming into the frantic, furious blasting with charging patterns and plenty of swirling tremolo riffing leading along through the sprawling mid-tempo sections filled with the tight rhythms along the finale for another solid track. ‘Black Goats Breath’ uses immediate blasting drumming and steady mid-tempo rhythms running along to the swirling tremolo patterns along the chaotic drumming with the frantic riffing leading through the tight leads with the buzzing patterns holding the intensity throughout the final half for a solid highlight. Lastly, album-closer ‘Storm of Steel’ features an extended melancholic intro with the change-over into tight blasting drumming and furious mid-tempo rhythms holding the tight, frantic patterns along with furious buzzing tremolo riff-work and blasting drumming running through the steady frenetic paces into the extended fade-out finale for an explosive and charging lasting impression.

Though there’s a lot to like here from a songwriting front about this effort, the fact that there’s just not a whole lot of actual songs on offer does come through and bite this one enough that it really seems more for fans of this bestial form of black/death or war metal in general.

Score:86 /100

Does it sound good? Order from here:
http://shop.ironbonehead.de/en/ibp-releases-/14751-decrepit-soul-oz-the-coming-of-war-cd.html