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EREBUS ENTHRONED
Temple Under Hell

Séance (2014)
Rating: 8/10

Temple Under Hell is the second full-length album from Australian black metallers Erebus Enthroned. This quartet formed back in 2006, with debut release Night’s Black Angel having emerged in 2011. The band is fronted by N, who is backed by guitarist D, bassist A and drummer M, and these guys clearly know how to create deathly black metal to get your attention.

I was rather concerned that this seven-track platter was going to be just another black metal opus, but having recently been swallowed up by the satanic majesty of England’s Grave Miasma, I couldn’t help but fall into the cold abyss that this Australian bunch has dug.

This is excellent stuff; cold, atmospheric and above all sinister in its energy and old school feel. Very much reliant on heavy rhythms and punishing percussion, Erebus Enthroned should appeal to anyone who knows their black metal. Watain, Marduk, old Darkthrone, Funeral Mist, Satyricon and Behemoth all spring to mind at times, but despite a lack of originality, the band are a dab hand at creating ritualistic black metal that should send a few shivers down the spine.

Album opener is the creeping ‘Sorathick Pentecost’, which leaks into the gloomy passage with a twisted riff and marching drum. There’s nothing remote or lo-fi about this, the combo wanting to crush bones rather than lick them clean. The foul vocal gurgle is extremely effective over those pensive structures, enabling the track to simmer with brooding intensity. ‘Sorathick Pentecost’ is a sprawling ten-minute masterpiece of varying moods and tempos, and at mid-point becomes a holocaustic black metal nightmare of racing drums and wicked guitars that weave through the darkness. I’m unsure what subterranean void Erebus Enthroned exists within, but the atmospherics of the place most certainly come through on this album.

‘Trisagion’ has more in common with Voivod initially as its spiked tentacles reach for the ears and then it rushes like an icy stream through the cold cavern, sparked by brisk drums and those horrid vocals which seem to be vomited from the chasm of some vile satanic dictator.

The album gets stronger as it progresses, with ‘Crucible Of Vitriol’ acting as a sneering, snarling flesh stripper, while ‘Black Sword’ marries chilly death metal with blackened speed. With nary a bad track in sight, ‘Void Wind’, the gargantuan title track and the equally monstrous closer ‘Return’ all heave with armour-plated arrogance and mix crushing speed with dank weight.

Temple Under Hell is a poisonous powerhouse of a record that is leaps and bounds above the debut, and one that should get the band the recognition they deserve. Europe watch out!

Neil Arnold

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