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PERDITION TEMPLE
The Tempter’s Victorious

Hells Headbangers (2015)
Rating: 8.5/10

There seems to be an overwhelming amount of blackened thrash doing the rounds at the moment and Tampa, Florida extreme metallers Perdition Temple is about ready to deliver its second fiery instalment.

In 2014, the crushing quintet served up the two-track EP Sovereign Of The Desolate, although other than that it’s been five years since any activity with debut platter Edict Of The Antichrist Elect emerging in 2010.

The Tempter’s Victorious features recently enlisted vocalist Impurath, who is also known for his work with Black Witchery. Impurath joined the ranks in 2013 and takes over vocal duties from Gene Palubicki, who is concentrating on his guitar work. The band – which began life as a duo – has also recruited another axeman in the form of Bill Taylor, who knew Palubicki from his days with Angelcorpse. Ron Parmer props up the rear-guard on drums, while being flanked by bassist Gabriel Gozainy. So, with a formidable line-up in tow, Perdition Temple sets out to destroy the ears with a barbaric fusing of black metal, death metal and spiky thrash, and succeeds where many others have failed.

The album is volatile from the off – surging at full pace from the title track – and it doesn’t let up one iota. This is mocking, hostile and fast metal now given an all new extreme edge by Impurath’s throaty vocal rasps and that twin guitar assault. One only has to imagine a melting pot of flailing guitars, wild reckless hammering percussion and a battering bass, but in this instance it’s a horrific racket realised as the formation rattles with such aggression so that Satan himself will no doubt be banging along.

The opening number is so spiteful in its approach – rarely straying from a path of scornful guitar work and confrontational drumming – that by the end of the track, we’re almost relieved at the lull. We’re soon swept up again by another blitzkrieg hurricane of sound; the quarrelsome ‘Extinction Synagogue’ is pure relentless barrages of twisted, perverse guitar structures ridden bareback by those grim vocal barks and throaty escapades. With this vile pairing of tracks, it’s immediately clear that Perdition Temple has made a huge advancement upon the wickedness portrayed on the debut album.

On Edict Of The Antichrist Elect, the band – especially then vocalist Palubicki – had a tendency to drift towards an all too familiar Morbid Angel-styled attack, but this time round there’s an extra level of malevolence and spikiness, the formation separating itself from the clichés that dogged the debut. With the following tracks, ‘Scythes Of Antichrist’ and ‘Goddess In Death’, the band veers into some truly murky territory bolstered by the vile incantations of Impurath who drags the sound into speedy, impure true black metal territory, although the sound still boasts that distinctive yet expected confrontational death / thrash marrying.

Much of what Perdition Temple’s sophomore opus delivers comes in at breakneck speed, but whereas on the debut there seemed to be a limitation of ideas within the ranks, by adding these new maniacs the sound feels more evolved and yet still meandering through that despicable terrain of primal pace. It could be argued that there’s a lack of variation throughout, but so well executed and nasty are each of the tracks that one is grateful that the band has mastered the art of making blackened death / thrash so toxic. Amidst the barbaric nature of it all there are nevertheless still some excellent moments of immediate accessibility.

From the dense, cutting riffage of ‘The Doomsday Chosen’ and the surging fires of ‘Diluvium Ignus’ we are still exposed to those confrontational outpourings of hate, but dig deep beneath the grotesque gushing and you’ll grow to appreciate that devious axe-work which is just one technical element within an overall structure of crushing chaos.

Perdition Temple has set out to create a truly intimidating record, and they’ve achieved this by implementing traditional blackened death / thrash nuances alongside their own hideous concoctions of cacophony. The end result, climaxing in the perverse chugging mayhem of ‘Devil’s Blessed’, is a composition that suggests a refreshed force within the genre and one which needs to be feared.

Neil Arnold

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