Temple Nightside – The Hecatomb (Review)

Temple Nightside are a blackened death metal band from Australia and this is their second album.

The first thing that attracted me to this album was the cover. Mysterious and ominous; the music naturally follows from this too. Also like the cover, the music is quite terrifying when you stop, really pay attention to it and let its dark atmospheres seep into you.

This is music that reeks of the bestial underground; the region that’s inhabited by strange, ritualistic creatures that effortlessly summon dark entities and occult daemons. Temple Nightside know how to create atmosphere and morbid feelings with ease.

These tracks have their base in death metal, but use tools from the black metal, (as well as a bit of doom), toolbox to foster auras of pure malevolence and worry.

The vocals, if you can even call them that, are quite inhuman and mysterious. I dread to think what the singer is actually saying, but he sounds as if he’s doing it through howling winds most of the time. Spectral monk-like cleans appear here and there too, merging with the music to create a deep otherworldly atmosphere.

If you’re into bands like Ævangelist then you’ll no doubt lap this up. Temple Nightside operate in the same shadowy place where nightmares brew.

Murky and evil, if you long for music that takes you to grim places, then check out Temple Nightside.