Band:	Temple
Album:	Structures In Chaos
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	February 2012

01. Rituals Of Marduk
02. Higher Perfection
03. The Algol Planet
04. Cover Her In Blood
05. Dead Sun Festival
06. Spiritual Development
07. Among Raven
08. Matagatsubi
09. Multiverse (Another Time And Space)

There are basically two types of brutal albums that bring on the rushing of endorphins for me. There's the type that should be sent immediately to NASA to have shot out into space to share with that Super 8 thing?Fukpig's latest, for example, which makes the Stravinsky pieces floating outside our solar system sound like they were written by fucking Sue Bob White?and then there are the ones that I know aren't very remarkable, torture clichés to shit, and are formulaic to an extreme, yet still make for some better-than-average, headbanging-fit-inducing, circle-pit-creating listening. The new Dutch death metal group, Temple's first release here is a decent example of the latter.

In an interview with the vastly inferior webzine Marcel spams Lords of Metal, the vocalist/guitarist for these guys, A.J. van Drenth half-inadvertently and yet bluntly summed up the Temple ethos: "I have nothing with [?] Scandinavian death metal bands, in my opinion they're not brutal enough. ; )." End of story. This is some blast saturated death metal, and it's brutal. Sure, saying that it's more brutal than Scandinavian death as a whole (and ostensibly most Dutch DM discs as well) might be a tad on the presumptuous side, but there's no question that these guys have been influenced more by Floridian death than their geographic location might suggest. So, yeah, there is an unmistakable heard-it-before quality to this...

Nevertheless, that doesn't necessarily make it seem like a heard-it-before kind of album. Not when it's taken as a whole, at least. The atmosphere, the interplay dynamics, and the sheer force with which this trio plays will provide enough meaty sustenance to satisfy fans of the more popular strands of (mostly American) death metal. Sure of that. Yeah, there probably isn't enough that's new and innovative here to get people who don't easily get off to death very interested, but those who like it when the blasts and manic, down-tuned riffs are more chaotic than catchy and those who prefer death metal that's relentlessly fast and angry as shit will find enough to dig on this. For jarring up a death metal blend in which the influence of a number of big bands (Nile, Behemoth, Hate Eternal, etc.) is more than just evident, Structures still has its own flavor?. It just happens that it's not a very novel flavor.

In other words, what these guys do has, more or less, been done before. Like, a lot. It just happens that Temple took the care to add their own subtle spice to their brand of DM pounding. That makes Structures a unique enough sort of deal and, therefore, worth checking out.

In more other words, it's one of those hear-it-for-yourself-because-what-makes-it-special-I-can't-really-describe sorts of deals... As usual, if you've read any other review I've written.