TEMPLE OF EVIL – The 7th Awakening

Temple Of Evil – The 7th Awakening (2016, Deathhammer Records)

Melodic/Symphonic Black Metal band from Cyprus, Temple Of Evil are labeled as making unadulterated Black metal by their promo material.

Labels given by promo people are often making me smile because of the difficulty their job can be with all the vocabulary that genre selling is now today. Within a subgenre there are many many subgenres. In the case of Temple Of Evil they are in the Black metal territory but their sound is a bit muted by the production and I find the drums to be too distant and the guitars on the higher end of the balance. Which makes for a dissonant record that deserves a better finishing touch than the final product we have been handed.

There are interesting orchestrations inserted all along the album and songs like ‘’The 7th Awakening’’ and ‘’Chalice of Impure Blood’’ are epic pieces of music. Their music reminds of Sacramentum that was making epic melodic Black Death metal. However, Sacramentum was making dangerous metal that was mysterious and grand at the same time.

There’s something missing in Temple Of Evil’s honest and skillful attempt at a genre that’s been visited so many times before. Will I be listening to this album again? Yes. Will it be in my best albums of the year? Probably not but a contender and a band to check out for sure.

6.7