Solar Temple appeared out of thin air last year with the mesmerizing Rays of Brilliance demo. While it’s not clear when the duo started playing together, both have been involved in some of the strongest Dutch black metal bands in recent memory (Iskandr, Fluisteraars, Turia). A little over a year later they’ve followed up the demo with debut full length Fertile Descent, which offers two sprawling tracks over thirty-six minutes. It’s the type of album that draws you in from the start with a haunting yet warm atmosphere but reveals subtle nuances with each additional listen, making the material stunning from start to finish.
There are some familiar elements to how Solar Temple builds up their songs, as the initial riffing on opener “Those Who Dwell in the Spiral Dark” washes over listeners in a manner that reminds me of US black metal like Yellow Eyes. The blasting drums and whirlwind of riffs has a colder edge to it, but the overall tonality proves to be just as warm and inviting over the course of the album. But unlike some of the other black metal bands out there that emphasize dense layers that create a thick atmosphere, Solar Temple doesn’t simply blast away the entire time. There are just as many periods of relative calm where the tempo slows down and the melodies expand outwards in an entrancing and mysterious way. Fertile Descent is at its best when the layers of sound fully envelop you and feel like they’re capable of transporting you to a time and place completely unknown. It’s not always easy to sustain songs of this length while transitioning often enough to hold listeners’ attention, but this duo does it with relative ease and specific passages will likely have many of you hitting the repeat button as soon as the album finishes.
You might be expecting that Solar Temple would utilize harsh vocals similar to many of their peers, but this is another area where they’ve gone off in their own direction. They’re much cleaner in tone, only coming in slightly distorted during key moments on the second song “White Jaw”. The best way I can think to describe it is somewhere between singing and chanting, and since the vocals are mixed slightly in the background they give off a meditative quality with how the words blend into the instrumentation. It’s this aspect that may prove to be an acquired taste for some, but it gives the material a unique flair that’s hard to compare to closely to other black metal of this type.
Solar Temple has built off the foundation from their demo and pushed outwards towards fuller melodies and atmospherics that fully envelop the listener from beginning to end. It’s the type of black metal that is capable of providing a bit of warmth and introspection alongside a harsh exterior, and seems like a perfect album to get lost in while wandering outside in the colder months to come. Fertile Descent is available from Eisenwald.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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