If you can get a breath of air long enough during the impenetrably suffocating atmosphere created by Vancouver BC’s TEMPLE OF ABANDONMENT to say the name of their brand new demo then count yourself lucky. The periphrasal title “Chasm of the Horned Pantheon: Through Your Death, They Live” already sets the stage for such horrifying and depraved imagery before even a note of music is heard. A journey of ferocity and fear is about to begin …
Initially the menacing cruelty attacks from every angle as we are met with bursts of death metal fury. This is no slow plod to the gallows. This is no painful wade through a roiling bog. Those will come later – There is plenty of time for agony after you’ve been pounded into dust. Only after a relentless knife-slashing of dual solo frenzy are we afforded some solace of suicidal serenity. Wails of pure sorrow and despair greet the unfortunate listener as the next formless void of “Crypt Born (Tenebris Devorantis part II)” opens at the song’s mid point. Finally we’re left with only a twitching, plinking guitar perceptible in the distance to match the fragility of the mortal coil. This is real suffering put to audio and it is almost unbearable … until the merciless execution returns to snap your neck with riffs summoned from the death doom mire.
And that’s where the death-march descent into the abyss of the “Black Ibex” begins. A chanting ritual to summon the pitch crepuscularities that linger beyond our perceptions. Don’t be fooled. This is not tranquility, but a moment to inhale and give in to the crushing melancholy of self-destructive leads, wretched torturing reflection, and ultimate submission to the void. At last, the ritual is complete and there is blood everywhere …
There is death doom and there is funeral doom, but rarely has such a perfect unholy union of sound been conjured into existence as it has on this so-called demo tape. Temple of Abandonment has superseded most peers in relentless execution and atmospheric immersion. Featuring stalwarts of extreme music from such forces as CHAPEL, NECROHOLOCAUST, DEATH WINDS, and AHNA, there is a multi-layered texture to the music that evokes truly unexpected twists and turns throughout. A maturity achieved by most bands deep into their career is on display here, and ostensibly this is just the beginning. Tread lightly, as this tape should come with a warning label ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’…
COVENANT RECORDS is honoured to release TEMPLE OF ABANDONMENT’s “Chasm of the Horned Pantheon: Through Your Death, They Live” CVNNT-002 into the wild, as our inaugural first release. Interested parties are urged to contact covenantfestival@gmail.com for wholesale access to this hideous juggernaut of a tape.
Recorded by B. Decorby
Mixed by Kris Stanley
Artwork by Anne O’Neill
