OLDE - Temple
October 18, 2017, 6 years ago
(Media Crush Recordings)
This Malton, Ontario-based band bring a fun, upbeat approach to their heavy doom on this, their second album. Temple follows up 2014’s I, and the band has spent the years since that album getting their sound nailed down pat, as the southern Sabbatherian groove of “Now I See You” proves, the band laying down a sound that is the grimy sludge counterpart to their own more rockin’ feelgood sludge moments. “Centrifugal Disaster” displays more killer riffs that ride this great middle ground between fun-time stoner rock and first-album Cathedral doom.
Yet, it never gets second-album Cathedral doom-rock, which, depending on how intensely you want to scrutinize this stuff and depending on your penchant for Martian bossanovas, is either a good thing or a bad thing. Me, I think it’s great, Olde perhaps offering a glimpse of what Cathedral’s second album could have been with their mixture of sounds here (not that Cathedral's second album doesn't rule, because it does). Temple ends strong, with “Maelstrom”’s crushing mid-tempo boogie-sludge and killer party-rock solo and closer “Castaway”’s epic, near Isisian vibe (again, killer solos here too, showing a bit of hope amongst the despair). A strong, and unique, doom release.