Temple of Baal - Lightslaying Rituals

November 3, 2009

Reviewer: Matt

French outfit Temple of Baal started out playing black metal in the style of countrymates Mütiilation and Celestia and over the course of two full lengths and several splits incorporated more and more contemporary death metal elements into their sound, culminating in Lightslaying Rituals, their third and most accessible release.

Armed with a pristine production and an arsenal of Vader and Slayer inspired riffs, Temple of Baal have a clear understanding of how to make a commercially viable extreme metal album.  The results are unremarkable from an artistic standpoint, but Temple of Baal should find a wide audience with Lightslaying Rituals as it’s a moderately well written and a professionally presented release.

Like most middle-of-the-road modern death metal, the music found on Lightslaying Rituals relies too heavily on vocal-anchored, Seasons of the Abyss-style groove riffing and predictable ABABCB songwriting.  Despite their nagging familiarity though, the individual riffs often manage to be momentarily enjoyable.  It’s a fun listen for driving or as background music, and I frequently found myself nodding my head and enjoying its relentless energy, catchy riffing, and hip aesthetic  Closer scrutiny, however, reveals it to be lacking soul and a core compositional theme.

Lightslaying Rituals has a lot of potential for a band with headlining aspiration, and the band have carefully and thoroughly developed their skills as performancer, but as a work of metal art it lacks the intellect of the best death metal and the emotiveness of the best black metal.  Like ninety percent of the metal albums released each year, it will be forgotten by the more discerning listeners by the beginning of the next.

Release Date: October 12th, 2009
Label:  Agonia Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Piercing The Veils Of Slumber
2.  Triumph Of Heretic Fire
3.  Black Sun Of The Damned
4.  Angstgeist
5.  Dead Cult
6.  Hate Is My Name
7.  Poisoned Words
8.  Vectors To The Void
9.  Blessings Of Blackfire

Total playing time:  40:24

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