Review by Felix on December 4, 2021.

Things that make the Corona-infected world a bit better: pancakes with cinnamon and sugar, a home win of my football team (happens never) and a new EP of Aegrus. Do you remember their name? It’s this band from Finland which has – just like Malum – more or less closed the gap to the leading hordes (Behexen, Horna, Azaghal…) from the land of the thousand lakes. Releases like Thy Numinous Darkness, Wolves Howl Revenge or In Manus Satanas were just too strong to ignore the quartet any longer. Now the four-piece returns with fresh compositions. The Carnal Temples holds almost 26 minutes of black metal that avoids senseless experiments successfully. Aegrus deliver their tried and tested form of blackness – never chaotic, but always stormy with a few genre-compatible melodies from time to time. The drilling guitar at the beginning of the title track opens the chapter for another “true” devil worship. The band acts in an absolutely authentic way and that includes the fact that the non-album-material presented here does not have to take a back seat to that of the last full-lengths. The soldiers of Lucifer deliver meticulously arranged tracks which do not lack variety, vehemence or spirit. The fast parts of the title track make me think about burning the church in the town where I live, but unfortunately, I am a Satanist only in theory. Maybe next time.

Perhaps it’s true that Aegrus have not taken the next step. I do not realize any kind of evolution in comparison with In Manus Satanas. But those who want to speak of “stagnation” should definitely add “on a very high level”. No song falls through the net and especially the transitions from very furious to rather melodic parts work very well. Moreover, the production sounds massive, dense and well-balanced. The throaty voice and the instruments meet on an equal footing and all in all I am listening to an almost perfectly produced black metal work – raw, but not blurred, professional, but not soulless. So more or less everything is fine here, even if the band lets its thoughts flow freely in 'Moonlit Coffinspirit'. This comparatively mild track is also well executed, but a higher degree of devastation would have been better anyway. So what, the slicing guitars and the raging drums of the relentless 'Flesh And Blood' destroy any form of undue laxity in a matter of seconds. Given this strong EP, I just want to say that I am ready to receive the fourth full-length of Aegrus in 2022 as well. Forge the irons for Lucifer while they are hot. And who knows how long this shit with Corona will last?

Rating: 8.2 out of 10