Perdition Temple – The Tempter’s Victorious
Gene Palubicki is a death metal warrior. One cannot deny his blazing riff swords and ear for crafting furious hymns that devastate with intricate complexity, while never losing site of memorable songwriting. Angel Corpse was a demon of a band on stage and on CD that stands the test of time as if hurled forth by the very winds of hell. Though that band will always hold a special place in my DM arsenal, time marches on and you simply cannot destroy a warrior and his work.
Enter Perdition Temple, a band that strikes me as the natural progression of Angel Corpse, but everything seems even faster and more intense/urgent. Bill Taylor has even re-joined forces with Gene on this album to further seal this twin guitar union with fire. As the Coroner-esque technical fills explode from the tracks Extinction Synagogue and Devil’s Blessed, where the bass follows the guitar mayhem perfectly, my mind is blown and it is hard to deny the astounding technical proficiency on display. Gene maintains his obvious Morbid Angel influence on this material, but you can tell he went into the creation of The Tempter’s Victorious with the intention to create some of the most fierce material of his career, while effortlessly laying waste to countless heavy hitters in the modern death metal world. The speed is teetering on the brink of chaos, but drummer Ronnie Parmer holds things together with his crushing double bass work and machine like blasting style. The riffs are endless and with so many tremolo shifts and whammy bar shrieked solos arising from the battlefield, Perdition Temple ask a lot of the listener to absorb and comprehend. The songs are very complex and at times alienating, but with that violent pulse in the guitar work twisting thoughts into an almost hypnotic trance, multiple listens are demanded and one begins to discern the subtle hooks to eventually heed the command. Even though I found Impurath’s (Black Witchery) vocals to be a bit dimensionless in his mid-ranged, reverb drenched croak, I soon realized that this style and performance worked well with the overly busy nature of the tracks he was attempting to empower. In the end, the music becomes the focal point and every meticulously shredded note and crushing break from the speed is crafted with madness in mind and violence in heart.
The Tempter’s Victorious is a lot to take. 8 hefty tracks that feel like there is a 30 riff minimum will leave you feeling winded and a bit battered sonically. Granted, I don’t find myself listening to modern minded death metal much these days, for my preference is typically for the old days and style of death that is more grit than flash, but having said that, Perdition Temple has created a very interesting and hammering body of work that I find very appealing and meticulously sculpted. A brighter, more live sounding production would have given this material even more of a raging attack, but this is a very minor point to be made about an impressive album. Crushing. -Marty
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