TEMPLE OF PERDITION: Tetragrammaton EP

Temple of Perdition is a coming together of different styles of music- death metal, black metal, and doom, as well as a coming together of musicians from different places- notably Texas and Finland. The band formed late last year as a project of three people from these two regions, with Benaiah on Vocals/Guitars, Ya’akov Nahash on Backing Vocals/Guitars/Bass and Joonas Heikkinen on Drums. If the name Heikkinen rings a bell in extreme metal circles, it’s because he also drums for three other bands – The Slave Eye, Angel of Sodom and Renascent. This 3 song demo serves as a teaser for the band’s forthcoming full length debut on Vision of God Records.

The first thing to realize is that Temple of Perdition is one scary metal band, and I’m not just talking the corpse paint and masks. “Adonai” starts the disc off to a heavy as sludge start with its part doom, part death metal, part movie soundtrack themes, bound together by the slow rhythm of drumbeats and various grunts, growls, and snarls proclaiming “only forgiveness in Adonai.” “The Last Temptation” starts in similar fashion, but from the first person point of view of satan tempting Christ in the wilderness. As soon as he lets out a terrifying roar, the music speeds up in intensity, and then slows down again toward the end and features some preaching samples. “Kunnia Heralle” settles into a blackened death metal groove, with alternating blastbeats and skin pounding, and a guitar tone that brings A Hill to Die Upon immediately to mind, with background noise that sounds like chanting, and various black and death metal screams. Yes, this is just a teaser, but certainly sets expectations high for their forthcoming full length. (Vision of God Records) 4 out of 5 stars

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