Join the cult of Temple of Scorn.
After a first independent EP in 2021, the Danish band composed of Simon P. Katborg (vocals, Horned Almighty, ex-Exmortem), Svend E. Karlsson (guitar, Baest, Kampvogn), Flemming C. Lund (guitar, The Arcane Order, live for Volbeat), Bjørn Jensen (bass, Bloodgutter, Dawn of Demise) and Jacques Hauge (drums, Horned Almighty, Sylvatica) sign to Transcending Obscurity Records to unveil Funeral Altar Epiphanies, their debut album.
Our first contact with the dark ceremony is Subsequent Mass, an introduction letting anxiety grow until a foghorn announces the arrival of violence on Burden of Decline and its dark Death Metal roots. Blasts and dissonant riffs give birth to massive vocal parts as oppression spreads through the air, whether on the fast rhythm or the slower passages the band uses to allow us to breathe, then Begotten by the Envenomed comes to trample us in turn thanks to effective patterns. We find a few disturbing harmonics in the more suffocating moments before the band charges again, even offering some majestic ambiences before exposing us to Icons of Demonic Virtues and its airy but still very heavy notes. The track remains fairly short, leaving the band no choice but to quickly pour out all their darkness until Portals to Dystopia imposes its own icy terror, where a few ominous leads patiently await their turn. The various more virulent waves effortlessly break up the more haunting moments, before the sound slowly fades away to make way for Funeral Altar Epiphanies, the impressive eponymous track, which immediately reveals its melancholy, regularly erased by a heavy rhythm. The composition seems bogged down despite the occasional double kick parts, but it eventually accelerates towards its center and leads us to Wretched Inner Sanctum, whose immediate ferocity will appeal to fans of the rawest sounds. The atmosphere remains stifling on this track, but it doesn’t get any lighter on Burning Palace of Wisdom, which closes the album with a relatively Old School approach, blending its jerky patterns with hazy riffs and ghostly howls that haunt the rhythm.
Temple of Scorn perfectly handles oppression and darkness to forge its suffocating rhythms. Slowness and dissonance are the order of the day on Funeral Altar Epiphanies, making the album a veritable heavy cloud from which you won’t emerge unscathed.
80/100