Originally written by K. Scott Ross.
Temple of Baal are a black/death metal quartet from Paris on Agonia records. One of their guitarists plays live guitars for Aosoth and Antaeus. The founding member of Temple of Baal, Amduscias, was once a member of Antaeus. Those facts put Temple of Baal firmly within my realm of interests. Their last album, Verses of Fire, however, had the misfortune to come out at the end of October in 2013. By that point in the year, I was so completely overwhelmed by fantastic music that I simply passed it by. This year, however, I’ve taken specific effort to check out Temple of Baal’s modern French-meets-Hate Eternal take on the blackest genre.
Let’s just open up by admitting that these songs are too long. Mysterium is fifty-five and a half minutes with only eight songs, one of which is a completely skippable ninety-second interlude. There’s no reason on Satan’s black earth that these songs couldn’t be cut down from seven-to-nine minutes to four-to-five minutes, and if they were, it would definitely improve the taste of the album.
With that out of the way, the music here is actually a lot of fun. The guitars have a deep gritty tone that works well with both tremolo sections and thrashing, headbanging moments. There’s even a smattering of guitar solos, which while of inconsistent quality are at least appreciated in theory. “Divine Scythe” is a standout example of the band bringing together thrash, black, and death metal styles to make something unique, meaty, and a lot of fun.
“Magna Gloria Tua” and “Hosanna” strike a balance between black metal tremolos and death metal tremolos. It’s interesting to hear both styles represented in the same song and be able to point out “that comes from Mayhem, and that comes from Morbid Angel.” Later tracks “Black Redeeming Flame” and “Holy Art Thou” may score points for being the shortest two tracks (not by much), but they’re unfortunately a lot more vanilla. Perhaps simply coming later in the album, the band’s shtick has already worn thin on the listener’s ears.
The great strength of the album is without doubt the drumming, provided here by a gentleman named “Skvm,” which I assume is the KVLT way to write “scum.” He’s also the drummer for The Order of Apollyon, another French black/death group that released an album this year. I personally don’t recall the drumming on The Sword and Dagger to have been nearly as impressive as what’s here on Mysterium. It’s often thanks to Skvm that the Hate Eternal comparison comes up in my mind, and if you remember Jade Simonetto’s work on Phoenix Amongst the Ashes, you’ll realize that’s high praise indeed.
The great weakness, in contrast, is the vocals. Amduscias is the singer here, and his barking growls are far, far too understandable. It may seem odd that I’m deriding a singer for being comprehensible, but the fact that he is so understandable means that the lyrics come into strong focus. And they’re terrible. Every single song goes like this: “Oh dark lord, you are dark and also very cool. We like you, and want you to know how dark and cool you are.” Granted, this isn’t too far afield from what Antaeus and Aosoth sing about, but those bands are both more passionate and less repetitive. This is the same sort of thing I’ve written about many times before, particularly in connection with Behemoth. If you’re going to write what are basically Christian praise songs for your dark lord, well, I’m glad that tickles your pickle, but most of the rest of us are going to go listen to something less stupid.
Overall, Mysterium has some very cool ideas, and I highly recommend giving “Divine Scythe” a spin, but it’s weighted down with its own swaggering sense of importance. If you want to play Opeth length songs, you need to earn it. Most other bands ought to consider holding themselves back. More isn’t always more, and I find myself saying that over and over recently. And seriously, if I hear that vocalist say “Lord of Death” one more time, I don’t know if I’m going to scream or piss myself laughing.
