By: Dave Allan Guzda
Tempel | website | facebook | twitter | bandcamp |
Released on June 16, 2015 via Prosthetic Records
One attribute that is often synonymous with metal is the intense and passionate lead vocalist. But what if there isn’t a singer? Can metal work without a charismatic lead singer? Arizona’s Tempel proves that not only is it possible – but that instrumental metal can stand with the best that metal has to offer. Tempel’s début On The Steps Of The Temple, for me, in many ways redefined how I viewed the genre. A few years later the duo of Ryan (guitars, keys, engineering) and Rich (drums) are back with five more tracks that comprise their exhilarating new album The Moon Lit Our Path.
Do you remember the invigoration you felt hearing the incredible run of Iron Maiden albums from the 80s for the first time? (Which I believe is some of the best metal ever!) That gripping blend of melody and musical mayhem? In many ways Tempel returns me to those days albeit with a blackened, doomy, heavier, but equally enthralling sound.
The tracks on The Moon Lit Our Path are long, sprawling, experiences that touch on various elements ripped from the heaviest and most potent sub-genres within metal. Ryan’s guitar work will drop your jaw. The energy he creates is palpable and adrenalizing over and over again. Ryan plays beautiful acoustic intros that decay into belching black tones scorched by hellfire then long ponderous and towering passages steeped in post-metal splendour. Tempel’s guitar is extraordinarily creative and dynamic. The songs are always shifting and evolving revealing new tones and brilliant sonic deviations. Tempel’s drummer Rich is the glue that binds Tempel’s musical fluidity together. Blast beats, speed, a well placed cymbal accent, a sudden mood change or a driving metal beat – where ever the song flows Rich aptly delivers the percussion.
The album opens with ‘Carvings in the Door’. Within moments a dense atmospheric fog descends as eerie keys reach out and long tense guitar notes creep forward… slowly, unsure. Then like a trap snapping shut, immense thunderous drums crash down with deep gloomy guitar. The song evolves into a well balanced soaring slugfest between melody and menace that leaves both combatants bruised and bloodied by the song’s climatic end. While the album is always played with a staggering level of musicianship and never relents – two titanic tracks ‘Dawn Breaks Over the Ruins’ and ‘Tomb of the Ancients’ require elaboration. My first listen to ‘Dawn Breaks Over the Ruins’ left me emotionally drained. It flowed impeccably with its dramatic sonic extremes, vivid composition and tenacious musical allure. Where could words fit into such artistic precision? A powerful, powerful track, that for me expressed a heart-felt and profound ache and tension.
To contrast ‘Tomb of the Ancients’ tumbles into the scariest corners of a dark musical tomb. The track hooks you in instantly with savoury flamenco guitar paired with somber and foreboding piano notes. The atmosphere is bleak as the opening tones are swallowed by a crushing riff. As if the sun is setting on the track the song just becomes darker and darker. The demonic tones of blackened guitar and angry blast beats fill the ‘Tomb’ surging up and down in vicious and unrelenting assaults of tempo. The riffs are evocative and sonically schizophrenic with shades of doom, death and the blackest of metals. Majestic and substantial, Tempel impress track after track. ‘The Moon Lit Our Path’ and ‘Descending into the Labyrinth’ illustrate further that Tempel shifts more musical gears than an 18-wheeler in an ice storm.
The Moon Lit Our Path is a remarkable accomplishment. The album is intricate, emotional, uplifting, horrific, crushing, cathartic and just erupts with riff after riff of colourful and evocative metal. Tempel blend the creative zest and gorgeous textures of post-metal with the gut-wrenching passion and grim intensity of black metal to forge a wholly satisfy sonic juggernaut. The Moon Lit Our Path is something special. If you like metal it is the most rewarding seven bucks you can spend at bandcamp that I’ve seen in some time. An easy early AOTY candidate. Wow.
