Review Summary: Alexander Meilenwald continues to cement his legacy as one of black metal's best musicians.
The Ruins of Beverast is a band that defies a lot of the laws of black metal. The man behind the madness, Alexander Meilenwald, has always been someone who took the norms of the genre and completely turned them upside down. Throughout his career, he has taken the rawness of black metal and blended it with genres like funeral doom and tribal ambient to give his music a huge ritualistic feeling. When you listen to The Ruins of Beverast, you find yourself feeling as if you're stuck smack-dab in the middle of some type of dark ceremony as a sacrificial lamb ready to be slaughtered. Other bands have tried to pull off similar sounds with their black metal base, but Alexander has been the one to really master it and make it his own.
Tempelschlaf is his newest album, and while there are some typical TROB moments throughout, it adds a bit of a different layer to his sound.
The title track kicks things off and this track is a gloomy, atmospheric banger that consists of a mix of his usual brand of black/doom metal, but you'll notice right away that there are tons of gothic elements right from the beginning as well. The clean vocals are haunting, they're unsettling and they're straight-up diabolical. Never before has TROB given us anything like this. The entire album continues this trend. ‘Day of the Poacher’ is the next track and it starts off with some clean goth rock vibes before transitioning into a slower sound that gives off the vibe of a sacrificial ritual, then before you know it, it blasts into black metal mania with sick blast beats and berserk riffage.
‘Cathedral of Bleeding Statues’ is a track that draws you in with its trance-inducing doom riffs, demonic death growls and some tribal-esque drumming. This track almost reminds me of something that Urfaust would do, relying heavily on that sinister atmosphere that I touched on earlier. The entire album keeps following this trend, bringing forth all of the aforementioned elements in different ways while never getting boring or repetitive. ‘Alpha Fluids’ and ‘Babel, You Scarlet Queen!’ are the most traditionally black metal tracks on the album. They both sound as if you're falling deep into a cosmic black hole while the riffs wash over you and the shrieks/croons lull you into psychosis. The last two tracks, ‘Last Theatre of the Sea’ and ‘The Carrion Cocoon’, are two absolute stunners, blending all of the elements that I've touched on while kicking the spooky atmosphere up even further than before.
The way that Alexander has always been able to make his albums sound like rituals is what really draws me into this album and the band in general. The gothic elements are a super cool touch and shows that he isn't afraid to go outside of his comfort zone. Earlier albums may have been more raw and more intense, but while this album is less about riffs and more about atmosphere, it's still just as effective.
Tempelschalf may not be on the same level as some of his earlier albums, but you better believe that it's a more than worthy addition to one of the best discographies in black metal.
