Review by Sonny for Temple Nightside - The Hecatomb (2016)

Australia's Temple Nightside were a new one on me at the time of The Hecatomb's release, but I could tell from the off that this was going to be right up my street. I have made no secret of my love for old-school cavernous death and death doom metal and that is what these guys provide in spades. In fact they have doubled down on the cavernous atmosphere, looking to funeral doom for inspiration in layering a thick, primordial ooze over their sound. This is so funereal in atmosphere that it sounds like it is being performed by a band who have been buried alive and is seeping up through the earth into the ears of the listener. Drummer Basilysk is a member of reasonably well-known funeral doom band The Slow Death and guitarist/vocalist IV was the sole member of blackened funeral doom project Funeral Mourning, so these guys have an understanding of funeral doom that serves exceedingly well their intention to make The Hecatomb as cavernous-sounding as possible.

Taking their cues from OSDM giants like Autopsy, The Hecatomb combines classy and memorable death metal riffs (the opener Graven has an absolute killer of a main riff) with slow, ponderous doom to produce a multi-faceted attack on the listener's eardrums. Although this approach is almost as old as death metal itself, going back to the likes of Autopsy and Winter, Temple Nightside manage to make The Hecatomb a must-listen by their sheer ability to craft well-written and tightly performed doomy death metal tunes which, when married with one of the most mouldering and pestilential production jobs ever, results in an album any self-respecting OSDM metal fan should be clamouring to get their clammy, hook-clawed mitts onto. There isn't a great deal here that hasn't been done before in this field, although it does lean into funeral doom more than any of the old-school bands would have done, with sections of "Fortress of Burden and Distress" and especially closing track "Charnel Winds" really slowing it down to a crawl that is more funeral doom than its deathly incarnation. The drums are a key element to the atmosphere generated and are primal-sounding without being simplistic and sit nicely in the mix, neither too distant nor overpoweringly upfront. The abyssal and ominous atmosphere has its ante raised by three short ambient interludes, the second and longest of which, "The Murderous Victor (Commune 3.2)", features chants and tympani-like drums that hints at ritualistic exhortations and sinister whisperings of demonic forces, leading into the funereal opening of "Fortress of Burden and Distress" which continues further with these demonic whisperings.

My love of funeral doom and its influence on the sound of The Hecatomb sees it becoming one of my favourite cavernous death metal albums. Fantastic as this thick, foetid atmosphere works on the slower sections, however, I do have some reservations about its effectiveness on the faster parts, with the muddiness and echoing distortion of the production slightly blunting the onslaught of the death metal blasts when they hit, but this is a minor niggle in truth and is unlikely to be a deal breaker if this is in any way your bag.