Ah, the current hot weather spell in the UK makes me think of good old Australia. I tell you what else makes me think of our south of the equator cousins? Blackened death metal. I reviewed 2016’s “The Hecatomb” album back in 2016 or so, and so when this dropped into the “to be reviewed” pile, I was most keen to get my hands on it…

The Australian four piece are just as wilfully obscure and cryptic as they ever were. From the opening strains of “Contagion of Heresy”, you’re assaulted by a barrage of complex riffs writhing underneath the death metal bass work. There’s an immense, cavernous production, not least with the bellowed but distant vocals, and the echoey twang of the high treble axe work. There is an absolute ferocity that pervades the music, a kind of unhinged violence that seems to be only just held at bay. When they’re at the races, in high gear and going for it tempo-wise, it’s a fairly exhilarating, if not too imaginative take on the whole blackened death metal motif. However, when the band decide to throw caution to the wind and let their imaginations run away a little, things get a bit more interesting. “Morose Triumphalis”, for instance, has some huge, distended and distorted slower riffs where the notes seem to bend in an almost Celtic Frost-ian way, while the rest of the music continues to rage in the background. The whole effect is one of occult forces pulling in different directions, and yet somehow managing to inhabit the whole song without feeling too incohesive.

This knack for organised chaos is something that can be found throughout the album. The guitar solos, where they emerge, are flayed, spiked affairs that seem to be flexing and agitating against the structures around them, and in that moment causing the song to stutter, shocked. That’s a hell of a knack to produce and still have songs that can be listened to and enjoyed. “Pillars of Damnation” is at the best when the song teeters on the very brink of falling into utter anarchy, but somehow manages to keep itself moving and in the right direction. Even with slower tracks like “The Carrion Veil”, there seems to be an audible gravity pulling at and warping the music in a way which very few bands have ever really been able to master. The closest I can get to the atmosphere, if not the execution, is Morbid Angel when Azagthoth manages to pull those riffs from another dimension out through the speakers. Well, as there, “Kusabs” and “IV” (guitars, guitar and vocals respectively) pull rabbits out of hats. The riff work here is simply astounding. This is an over-worldly, blind god threshing at the heart of madness.

A classic then? Well almost, but not quite. While there are some jaw dropping moments of music to be had here, there are a couple of fairly ordinary tracks too (“Blood Cathedral”, I’m looking at you), but in the main this is top tier, weirdo occult extremity. Think Runemagick, but with the metronome set to fast time, and with more spikes. This isn’t easy listening, for sure – but it’s a damn great listen nevertheless.

(8/10 Chris Davison)

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https://templenightside.bandcamp.com/album/pillars-of-damnation