Temple - On the Steps of the Temple [Full length] (2012, Self-released)

My main problem with most progressive metal bands is that nowadays a lot of them take the djent route. Another thing is that many musicians mistake "progressive" for "putting a bunch of twiddle-twaddle bullshit together for no apparent reason other than to make it sound spacey and/or technical as fuck". Therefore it is nice to listen to a band such as Temple; A band that takes the technical elements out of progressive and merely focus on atmosphere.

To introduce the band, Temple is a two-man endeavour into the ethereal realms of progressive metal from Arizona in the United States. On their only release, the album "On the Steps of the Temple", the listener is forcefully embarked upon a journey through the almost cinematic soundscapes of the album's six songs. The term "song" is used loosely as the band is actually entirely instrumental, and consists of Ryan's thoughtful guitar, bass and scarce keyboard work accompanied by Rich's indulgent drumming.

On the Steps of the Temple features several influences from a myriad of genres, from the black metal-infused opening track "Mountain", to the almost symphonic post-rock track "Final Years", to the gloomy "The Mist that Shrouds the Peaks", which is entirely defined by its funeral-like tempo and disposition. The amount of variation on the album speaks of great care for the music the band performs, and Temple really are an entirely different breed of progressive than other acts such as Dream Theater, Meshuggah or Tool.

There aren't many things that subtract from the Temple equation. Their music is greatly varied, has good depth, has both long and shorter tracks, mesmerizing melodies and enthralling, atmospheric soundscapes. One of the things that I don't like about On the Steps of the Temple is the length, as the album is really long at about 52 minutes. I know it's not uncommon for progressive or atmospheric bands to have lengthy releases, and for the most part it works fine, but because it takes a little under an hour to listen to the entire album I rarely find time to listen to the album in its entirity in one sitting. However, I don't want this to be reflected too much on the album's overall score. Temple's music is captivating, well produced and well written. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Mountain
2. Rising from the Abyss
3. Final Years
4. The Mist That Shrouds the Peaks
5. Avaritia
6. On the Steps of the Temple

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TEMPLE on Bandcamp

Kon Hex - Magnetic Sun [Full length] (2011, self-released)

Drone, the genre of the masters of patience. If you listen to drone you better be prepared for tracks in excess of 30 or even 40 minutes. To me drone is a genre best suited for background music like ambient, but I find that few bands play drone without any influences from other genres like doom metal, funeral doom metal or even stoner rock. Drone is mostly thought of as a monotonous and boring genre in which the musicians don't require any actual skill, but I disagree.

The Canadian one-man band Kon Hex is a young band with a number of releases up it's sleeve. With the release of the full length "Magnetic Sun" after the full length "Charge V" and the EP "Expanse", Kon Hex has aimed for a standard approach to drone but with a twist of the abovementioned influences from funeral doom metal and ambient. It seems the focus of this solo project has been on atmosphere rather than riffing, as is the case with much drone doom metal.

If you like drone with a twist, check out Kon Hex's material. The Magnetic Sun full length features classic drone with occassional drums, bringing with it a slight dash of funeral doom metal. With a total length of more than an hour there're lots of details to notice and explore in this interstellar journey known only as Kon Hex.

The material on Magnetic Sun, even if it contains only 4 tracks, has a wide range of atmospheres and feelings. From sinister and evil atmospheres like of an ancient grotto or cavernous cathedral to something out of this world, eldritch and lovecraftian. Kon Hex manages to really set the mood, in no small part due to the magnificent intro track that does exactly what an intro should: Set the atmosphere for the rest of the album. The crushingly dark focus of Magnetic Sun is the perfect soundtrack to deep space and is a fantastic example that drone doesn't have to be boring and uneventful. The sluggishly heavy chugging riffs have something utterly alien and intergalactic about them.

Some of the chugging parts of Kon Hex - Magnetic Sun even have hint of Tom Warrior's new band "Triptykon" about it. Magnetic Sun sets an example for drone as a vast, black monolith in a dark and desolate ocean. As proof that drone is easily combined with other similar genre. As an example that drone isn't necessarily monotonous. If you're a fan of Sunn O))), Nortt and Urna this is definitely worth checking out. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. The Uncharted Notice
3. In the Seas of Darkness
4. MSun

All Kon Hex releases can be downloaded HERE
Kon Hex - Magnetic Sun is available for free download HERE
Visit the band on their official website

Benalthel - Reach Towards the Sky [Demo] (2011, Self released)

Melodic Death Metal is probably one of the most popular subgenres of metal. Prominent melodic death bands like Amon Amarth, In Flames, Dark Tranquility, Dethklok and Arch Enemy, who are all immensly popular, make it clear that it is a genre that is both commercially succesful and also a genre that many young people use as a gateway into the fiery depths of metal.

With a name like "Benalthel" and a demo titel like "Reach Towards the Sky" I didn't know what to expect. It might aswell have been atmospheric black metal or orchestral power metal. But what I got was some severely shredding instrumental melodic death metal.

Benalthel is a one man band from Sweden and as such features little more than ear raping guitars and gut pounding drums. But other than the very Dethklok-esque guitar work, and I mean that in a positive way, and the very complex drums I noticed the production. The production is incredibly boomy and muddy, rendering some of the deeper tones on the guitar almost inaudible. Fortunately most of the shreddin is audible and actually also pretty good. The first track contains some pretty solid, unusual and memorable riffs.

I'm making it sound like Reach Towards the Sky is nothing but fast paced shredding, but it is far more than that. As I mentioned above, the drums are very diverse and intricately programmed, giving the feeling that Benalthel used a lot of time on each song. A trap that many one man bands fall into is depthless songs of short length and little variation, but this debut demo has lenghty songs (the longest being 7 minutes and 13 seconds) with constantly changing song structures. The fact that the demo is instrumental can be both a pro and a con. While it can be tiresome to listen to nothing but guitar and drums all the time, vocals would also take away much of the focus from the impressive guitar and drum work. But if vocals were left out in order to create focus on the music, the production had better damn well be good enough! But the thing is, it isn't. The production is really bad and makes it hard to distinguish individual sounds and therefore makes it harder to enjoy the music.

Though production means a lot, flow means just as much, if not more. The three tracks on Reach Towards the Sky has incredible flow, both internally in each song and between the songs. All the tracks have the same feel, although they change alot in heaviness and amount of shredding.

While the demo sports a generally high level of detail and overall quality (expect production wise), the last track does have one element that feels alien. Choir. We all know it, that cheesy Casio-synthesizer choir chorus that reeks of the 80's. It can fit in in some types of music, but melodic death metal is not one of them. Another thing that seems weird. The last two song titles. "To Infinity" and "And Beyond". Does that sound familiar? That's because it's the catchphrase of Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. Really? I mean, REALLY? It doesn't fit in at all, and it sounds to me like a joke.

Overall Benalthel's "Reach Towards the Sky" debut demo has some bad elements, namely the last two song titles and the horrendous production. This three track demo has enough good things about it to pull up to a 6/10 though. The lengthy, worked through tracks with memorable riffs and forcefully pounding drums are an absolute plus and makes me want to hear more from this band in the future.

Tracklist:

1. Reach Towards the Sky

2. To Infinity

3. And Beyond

Visit Benalthel on Bandcamp and download the demo for pay-what-you-want