Temple Below

Temple Below - Temple
Kuravilú Productions, 2008
Genre: Black Metal

1. Intro - Infernal Prayers
2. Abomination of Desolation
3. Goddess of Doom
4. Temple
5. Portal of Obscurity
6. Call of the Altar
7. Outro - His New Temple
8. Cursed Excruciation (Mystifier Cover)








Temple Below strike at the Black Metal scene from Chile with their demo "Temple."  It's fairly raw, yet intense experience that is well worth having for many Black Metal fans.  This demo is limited to 333 hand-numbered copies of which I own #136.  It comes with a pro-printed booklet and a dubbed tape with Temple Below stickers on it.  The booklet folds out and features lyrics and pictures.  Unfortunately, the lyric font is a little too small and makes them very hard to read.

Temple Below are playing a sort of old school Death Metal and Black Metal hybrid.  There's that time in history where some of the older sounding Death Metal bands could easily be confused with some Black Metal because the genres referenced the original Thrash Metal feel quite a bit.  I would say Temple Below really leans closer to the Black Metal side given the dark and occult feel behind the nature of the music.  Either way you look at it, they are certainly taking something from the book of Sweden in their style of Metal.  There is that sort of unbridled edge to their music, which hearkens back to Thrashier days like the opening of "Goddess of Doom" when that solo kicks in!  Temple Below sort of makes me think of Repugnant, but more Black Metal rather than Death Metal.  So if you were curious how a more Blackened version of Repugnant would sound, this maybe your chance!  Interspersed through the tracks are these haunting Ambient styled pieces that add a layer of dark atmosphere to the music.  Strangely it sort of fits in with that primitive Black Metal sound, which I wouldn't think would sound very good.

The production is actually quite excellent, sort of expected for a modern demo.  It certainly maintains a fairly raw quality as demos tend to, but I think the Thrashier edge behind the music really makes this work quite well.  The only complaint I have is with the snare tone.  It sounds fine while the drummer is blasting away through sections, but when he slows down it sounds more like a flat smack than a snare drum. It sort of sticks out in some sections, but overall isn't too distracting within the music.  Still a way better snare tone than Metallica's "St. Anger" though.

I do recommend people give this demo a listen.  It seems Chile is going to be giving the other South American countries a run for their money when it comes to producing very good Black Metal!