Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces October 30th as the international release date for Temple Nightside's highly anticipated fifth album, Cenotaph Severance, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
By now, Temple Nightside should require no introduction. Begun in 2010 by mainman IV - whose experience in the fertile Australian black metal underground is vast in itself - to explore a more blackened version of ancient death metal, the band's initially self-described "Ritualistic Death Metal Necromancy" eventually morphed into more atmospheric and more deeply cavernous shapes, culminating in 2016's critically acclaimed The Hecatomb. But such acclaim matters not to Temple Nightside, and the now-quartet next explored their past with the foul 'n' fascinating Recondemnation in 2018, which was a reimagining of their 2013 Condemnation debut album. In that cursed year of 2020, the band released arguably their apex, Pillars of Damnation, revealing a tighter, daresay "anthemic" side. Since then, recordings have been silent and shows were a select few...
But the crypt is never truly at peace, and stirrings in the abyss take their time to come to the surface. Witness Temple Nightside's long-awaited fifth full-length, Cenotaph Severance. It would not be inaccurate to say that LP5 picks right up where Pillars of Damnation left off, with both riffing remaining immediately memorable and execution whip-tight. Joining on guitar is Ignus Fatuus, longtime member of such mighty hordes as Portal, Impetuous Ritual, and Grave Upheaval; whether his addition lit a sulfurous fire within the band, one cannot say, but this lineup seems truly suited to the material at hand. As such, Cenotaph Severance easily elevates itself above the thousand other bands playing "cavernous" death metal due to a stridently black metalled atmosphere - as above, so below, with reverberations seemingly stretching for miles in both directions - characteristically stellar songwriting, and a reintegration of elder bestial tendencies most auspiciously seen on 2011's extremely cult Prophecies of Malevolence demo. That the album's production marries massive crush to ethereal vibration is proof of Temple Nightside's ongoing mastery, no matter how long they've been away.
No other words necessary. Temple Nightside have returned with Cenotaph Severance.
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track "Soul Defilement"
HERE at Iron Bonehead's Soundcloud. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Temple Nightside's Cenotaph Severance
1. Seething Dissolve
2. Sunken in Charnel Entrails
3. The Slow Embalming of the Will
4. Soul Defilement
5. Within Sepulchred Walls
6. Desolation Utterance
7. Exhumed Death
8. Fossilised Entombment
