Temple Nightside – The Hecatomb (Iron Bonehead Productions. 2016).

Temple Nightside – The Hecatomb (Iron Bonehead Productions. 2016).

Since this is a project featuring V. Kusabs, and given the quality of the previous album, Condemnation, and the Vassafor material, I entered listening to the latest album by Temple Nightside with high hopes. The recent album, titled The Hecatomb, does not disappoint, and is a deadly, spectral nightmare through winding catacombs. The song structures are at points labyrinthine and twisted, layered with murky riffs that range from tremolo picked droning to some more furious churning and to some crushing, doomy riffs. The guitar tone sounds like the audial incarnation of a thick cloud of incense, mixed with the potent smell of fresh blood, enhancing the ritualistic nature of the songs. There are occasional leads, which also have an Abyssal feeling, that, when added to the heaving riffs, accentuates the macabre nature of the music. When being utilised, the bass drum rumbles subtly beneath trance-inducing riffs, not overpowering the guitars but adding to the hypnotic quality. All of this, along with the whispered vocals and occasional chants and being perfectly mixed and produced for the style of Blackened Death Metal, is combined in such a way that it helps to conjure up some perverse mixture of Lovecraftian horror and the unfathomable force of the Void. From the beginning of the album, with the terrifying Graven, through to the end, the atmosphere of the Abyss and of the cosmic destruction via the force of entropy remains potent. The song Tempest, after a droning start, lives up to its name, being a swirling vortex of evil especially during some of the up-tempo sections or the crushing doomier segment with its wailing leads. The final song, Charnel Winds, is a cavernous behemoth, being 9 minutes long and consisting of crawling, morbid sludgy riffs that writhe in the Abyss with reverberated lead guitars wailing from the depths and a desolate drumbeat. The song epitomises the sepulchral atmosphere that the album is imbued with, being a bleak journey through Death. The three more dark ambient tracks are able to achieve a disturbing atmosphere, especially The Murderous Victor (Commune 3.2), which is composed of whispered vocals over haunting dark ambient and chants, whilst the relatively short Ossuary (Commune 3.1) acts as a perfect introduction for the following song, the commanding Fortress of Burden and Distress. This album is well composed, flowing perfectly along its Stygian course, and the charnel spirit of the album never diminishes. Once again, Temple Nightside have created a disturbing yet entrancing piece of dark art. 9/10.