Sepulchral Temple – S/T EP

Well these guys have just come out of nowhere, but hopefully they don’t return there.  Sepulchral Temple are a mystery.  Their website is currently inactive (not to mention built with, blah, Wix), and in spite of having only a small number of Facebook fans they managed to snag both Invictus Productions and Iron Bonehead Productions to simultaneously release this EP on both CD (digipack) and 12″ with tons of bonus goodies.  That’s surprising considering it’s is a mere four songs in length, two of which are both outros that clock in at only about a minute-and-a-half together.  We’ll leave it a mystery as to how this trio of blasphemous metal freaks were able to pull it off, though it might have something to do with their rather extensive history in several bands including Dictator, Craven Idol, and Perdition Winds.  All ripping, horribly underground, and disgustingly awful (in a good way).  So imagine, if you will, one member from each of those getting together, crossing lengthy country barriers from Cyprus to Finland and then over to the United Kingdom to create this living horror.  How and where they came from we’ll leave to suspense, like a classical Gothic romance, though in this case draped in layers of blood.

  

Sepulchral Temple has an amazing amount of metal in a small amount of space.  If it wasn’t clear to you it must be something unusual if two labels picked it up for two separate releases, we suggest you read the introduction again.  Now that that’s out of the way, let’s consider the actual album itself, after drooling over the simple, yet pleasingly sick artwork.  Ohhh…yes…yes we like this.  Sepulchral Temple are labeled as “death metal” if you do some searching around, but really they’re so far in the realm of “blackened” considerations must be given to “black metal” as well.  This EP has a level of evil atmosphere over it that would make Behemoth shed tears over all their years of wasted, talentless trite etched into plastic, because they’ll never come close to this level of black.  They’re a mere farce of metal in comparison to Sepulchral Temple and, hey, maybe this review will start a blood-feud some day.

 

But we already know who’s going to win.  Sepulchral Temple first builds atmosphere through eeriness and then delivers so much crush your bones, blood, and flesh will be mere wisps of spatter strewn about a field.  There’s so much crush here it will register on scientific machine of some sort as a collision with another planet.  Those drums, so cavernous, those vocals so hideous, so frightening those shrieks (enough to give Dani Filth a reason to retire), that speed…  Considering how small this is, one would expect it to become tiresome after only a few listens, but surprisingly this is one of the most repeat-worthy releases we’ve heard in awhile.  If Sepulchral Temple get their stuff together and complete a full-length it’s going to be massive, massive to the level of cosmic cataclysm with demons and dead angels all over the place, something the world has never seen in terms of potential.  Classic in many ways, sure, but these guys have all the skill and style you need, and they do it in the space of less than 1/16 of a regular black metal album with only two songs, in essence.  Amazing.

 

Sepulchral Temple Official Facebook

Written by Stanley Stepanic

Sepulchral Temple – S/T EP
Invictus Productions, Iron Bonehead Productions
4.5 / 5