Band:	Black Orchid Empire
Album:	Tempus Veritas
Style:	Djent, Alternative metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	April 2023

01. Tempus Veritas
02. Hydrogen
03. The Raven
04. Last Ronin
05. Scarlet Haze
06. Deny The Sun
07. Glory To The King
08. Summit
09. Weakness
10. Vesuvius
11. Latimer

Season Of Mist are a label that I primarily associate with extreme metal, and when looking at their roster, there’s good reason for that. I was therefore somewhat surprised to find melodic alt/prog band Black Orchid Empire as part of their line-up when scouring recent releases; however, Tempus Veritas is more evidence that when the label branch outside of extreme metal, they pick wisely.

This is the fourth album from the London-based trio, who have been building momentum across the decade since they formed, nabbing support slots on bills with major alt rock acts such as Biffy Clyro, Skunk Anansie and Editors. None of those sounds anywhere the style of a band that might be attached to Season Of Mist, so I assume those connections were made slightly earlier in Black Orchid Empire’s career, when they were still more on the threshold between alt rock/prog rock and alt metal. As time’s gone on, the pendulum has swung more towards the metal end of the spectrum, particularly with the increasing incorporation of influences from modern prog metal, including quite a bit of djent, leading to the melting pot of sounds they display on Tempus Veritas.

In terms of musical references, the tags on the album’s Bandcamp page offer up a few, including Chevelle, Vola and Voyager. There’s a few more that come to my mind, including Karnivool and Caligula's Horse; I feel the music here nicely straddles that alt/prog divide, and the vocals at times bear some resemblance to Ian Kenny, particularly on tracks such as “Summit”. In addition, there’s bands from the more melodic end of the djent spectrum that I hear hints of; the tone and vibe of the chorus in “The Raven” does a great job of scratching the itch that (pre-implosion) Corelia and now Karmanjakah do, while “Deny The Sun” sends my mind to, if not TesseracT, then Daniel Tompkins’s solo album Ruins.

That’s a lot of bands I’ve named in the last paragraph that I’m varying degrees of fond for, so it’s probably unsurprising that I enjoy Tempus Veritas a lot as well. It has a really satisfying balance of easily memorable melodic choruses, punchy djenty grooves, and tasty grooves and quieter moments of either a more progressive or more straightforward persuasion. “Hydrogen” perhaps isn’t the most spellbinding first proper taste of Black Orchid Empire on the album, but “The Raven” has a compelling emotional tone to it with a memorable chorus, while “Last Ronin” makes good use of dynamic contrasts. Later on the album, “Deny The Sun” has plenty of satisfying groove and hooks, “Weakness” pushes the cheesiness at times but is fun, and “Vesuvius” is pleasantly muscular. Tempus Veritas also comes with a strong ending, as “Latimer” is arguably the darkest, heaviest song on the whole album, capping off the record in brooding fashion.

This album is tight at 37 minutes in length, consistently enjoyable, and features enough fluctuation in tone to distinguish songs from one another. All in all, I like this album quite a bit, perhaps not at the level of some of the artists I namedropped earlier, but certainly within the same ballpark. I’m frankly surprised to have not encountered this group before, seeing as they’re from London and play music that’s right up my street, but they’ll definitely remain on my radar from now on.