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Temple Koludra - Seven! Sirens! To A Lost Archetype review




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Band: Temple Koludra
Album: Seven! Sirens! To A Lost Archetype
Release date: June 2019


01. Trimurti
02. Vajra
03. Grey Apparition
04. Namapura
05. This Diadem Will Last
06. Vertigo
07. White I Trance

Despite the fact that Temple Koludra's mastermind, M:W, prefers to call his project a collective, this debut is mainly a solo work, with some vocals performed by M:G and featuring drum contributions by P:W, who is rumoured to be a black metal veteran but, just like everyone involved, his/her identity is a mystery. To be blunt, I normally don't bother with bands that have a desire to hide the musicians' identity because, more often than not, I find this tendency to be a pretentious effort to merely add a touch of enigma to underwhelming music. However, exceptions do occur and, oh boy, is this such an exception!

The album reaches for the spirituality of the East; the picture of the Chamunda statue for the cover art was taken at the Maa Kāmākhyā Temple in Northeast India and from the opener, "Trimurti", you experience an existential statement, both conceptually and musically, representing the three cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction or -in other words- birth, growth and death.

From then on, Seven! Sirens! To A Lost Archetype continues as monstrous and grandiose, haunting and adventurous, and, most of all, adorned with ancient mysticism. On one hand, chaotic dissonance is enriched with Dead Can Dance-y atmospheric passages, eerie interludes and ritual instruments from different traditions of the Himalayan region. On the other, industrial-like riffs are combined with Dissection-reminiscent melodies that may catch the listener a bit off-guard. These last ones should be expected though, since Temple Koludra actually tried their hands on "Unhallowed" in their Tooth And Nail EP that was also released this year and M:W has often mentioned Storm Of The Light's Bane's massive influence on him in interviews.

At times there is a feeling of repetition in sections that are encountered in different tracks but, instead of making it monotonous, they help the album flow in a serpentine way, which is all the more fitting for a band whose second part of its name is derived from the Latin term 'colubra', meaning colubrid, snake. To return to the Trimūrti concept, this absorbing one-hour experience comes across as a perpetually creative process that employs various sounds and instruments, balances perfectly intensity and ambiance, and approaches songwriting with dynamic and multi-layered vision. You really need to listen to it again and again if you want to have any chance of unearthing its facets of aural magic.

It might sound weird that a German-originating 'deathened' black metal (as opposed to 'blackened' death metal) record merged with Indian spirituality can act as such nourishment for your mind and soul but take my word for it: Seven! Sirens! To A Lost Archetype could have ten exclamation marks instead of two and they still wouldn't be enough.

"Dreams made flesh and flesh made dreams
Celebrate and ignite the monstrance of ennoblement
When the sirens of the archetype hum
And the fires ascend"





Written on 06.09.2019 by Only way to feel the noise is when it's good and loud!


Comments

Comments: 1   Visited by: 73 users
06.09.2019 - 18:51
Malignar

Listening now. Impressive stuff, great production.
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