Shaarimoth - "Temple of the Adversarial Fire" (World Terror Committee, 2017)

Band: Shaarimoth
Title: Temple of the Adversarial Fire
Genre: Black/Death Metal
Year: 13th January 2017
Time: 48 min
Rating: 90/100













Shaarimoth is a very strange band! Firstly, they belongs to the roster of World Terror Committee but they don't plays that religious black metal loved and supported systematically by the aforementioned label, despite their very occult themes spotted even into their tendency to release albums characterised always by 11 songs (it seems that the number 11 has a strong esoteric meaning) . Secondly, Shaarimoth aren't a prolific band considering they realized since their foundation (2004) only two productions, both full-lenght albums. The last of these ones is the here reviewed "Temple of the Adversarial Fire", released recently. But what isn't strange is that this album, as it happens for many productions of W.T.C., deserve the whole attention of the extreme metalheads. And don't forget that Shaarimoth (that contains ex-Disiplin members) comes from Norway, that was the promised land of black metal in the '90s while now it's full of the wilder death/thrash metal bands of the entire world like Deathhammer, Reptilian and others.


Said this, "Temple of the Adversarial Fire" shows a band with a sound particularly original and anti-conventional which can be described as a kind of black/death metal with a strong occult feeling spewing forth, at the same time, a bunch of ideas and curious features.

For example, the vocals are unpredictable but homogeneous as the whole music. In fact, the main vocals alternate classic growls very close to the US death metal with often frantic screams but, very soon, you will listen also to some whispers, suffering death rattles or even melodic but spectral female vocals ("Point of Egress").

Instead, the riffing is very particular because the lead guitar is practically omnipresent with its riffs often atmospheric. This brings to some outros full of a freezing psychedelic feeling ("Elevenfolded Wrath of Achra") but also to hysterical and violent solos (curiously often played during the vocal torments). In addition of this, there are even some melodies, as exemplified perfectly into the very long and amazing instrumental fugue of "Ascension of the Blind Dragon", guided by a bizarre melodic solo.

Then, the drums are very balanced between fast-tempos (included blast-beats) and the slower ones, with the result to be effective in both these cases. In this sense, I have to mention absolutely the violent fast restart of "The Hungry Omega" as also some patterns focused instead on ritualistic tom-toms. Moreover, some songs are based on mid/slow tempos like the freezing, hypnotic and apocalyptic "Elevenfolded of Sitra Achra" or "Harba di Ashm'dai".

But if all this isn't enough, the tracks of Shaarimoth are embellished by keyboards and various effects also in order to create a thin industrial aura (as in the quasi-thrash metal mid-tempos of "Lord of Putrefaction" - their first moments are very shivering!). Finally, not so few numbers are ended by ambient outros but sublimating this another curious feature into "Altar of Becoming".

At this point, it's useless to continue with the review of "Temple of Adversarial Fire". In fact, it is one of those albums that you have to discover song after song showing, in my opinion, its better peaks into "Elevenfolded Wrath of Sitra Achra", "Lord of Putrefaction" and "Ascension of the Blind Dragon", all tracks able to crystalize the style of Shaarimoth, dubbed by them not as a music but as a ritual.

Tracklist:

1 - Point of Ingress (Initiatory Death
2 - The Hungry Omega
3 - Elevenfolded Wrath of Sitra Achra
4 - Lord of Putrefaction
5 - The Fires of Molok
6 - Beast of Lawnessness
7 - Faceless Queen of Bloodstained Dreams
8 - Harba di Ashm'dai
9 - Ascension of the Blind Dragon
10 - Altar of Becoming
11 - Point of Egress

Line-up:

R - vocals
F - guitars/bass/keyboards
J - drums

Homepage: http://www.shaarimoth.com/
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/Shaarimoth
World Terror Committee: http://www.w-t-c.org/