Review by Michael on December 7, 2024.

With Anti Deus Polish one-man band Temple Of Decay premieres with the second full-length album on the excellent label Godz Ov War Productions. Cover-wise it seems quite obvious that the listener gets delivered some blasphemic and satanic black metal, as you can see a devil priest giving the unholy communion the great beast (it seems quite hairy, maybe a brush would help to get it into a better shape).

Musically it sounds very sinister. The first spoken words truly sound like some demons tongue and after they have finished a slight Scandinavian thunderstorm breaks out over the listener. Probably a lot of Marduk-listening sessions were the godfather for a lot of the frantic and fast riffs. A lot of the music reminds me of their opus magnum "Panzerdivison Marduk" and many other great reference works.

Okay, that sounds like Temple Of Decay is a blunt copycat which actually isn't the case. They just tend into that sort of black metal, to describe it a little bit closer. First of all the screamed Polish vocals are a trademark which is quite outstanding and makes the music even more hateful. But some punkish vibes are to be found in the songs, too. Just skip the opener 'Strach I Sumienie (Stosy)' almost to the end and you will get what I mean. And the band can also create a diabolic, creeping atmosphere with some church bells and ritualistic drumming. What else than a title like 'Diabolical Summoning (Sztandary Buntu)' could match better for that?

In some parts the album leaves the orthodox black metal way, too and tends to some more dissonant approach. 'Afirmacja Smierci' is a black soundscape which is super dense with a blizzard-like riffing, thunderous drums and some really hypnotic chants. But again, here also are some strong reminiscences to Marduk when you hear these "ahaha-vocals" – some inspiration from their newer albums.

'Klecha' starts with some blasphemous animal and industrial tunes and kicks off like a mixture of some kind of death metal meets Motörhead (when you listen to the vocals and the deep tunes bass). This is the catchiest one (in some parts) but also pretty hard to listen to with all the strange samples in-between. This is the purest essence of true black metal: ugly, unpleasant and non-conforming.

And a funny thing is the use of a siren in 'Apokaliptyczna Furia'. Why? Well, I just listened to "Falling From The Sky" from "We Have Arrived" by the legendary Dark Angel. Well, I guess they got a little bit of inspiration from that song. Even in the song you can hear some thrash influences between all that black metal inferno.

So what offers Anti Deus to the listener, to sum it all up? The album is a brutal piece of traditional black metal in most parts, sometimes the band breaks out of the orthodox direction to incorporate some more experimental and sometimes hard to bear music which makes the album a sinister black metal beast that lurks in the corner to bite you into your ass. Evil one!

Rating: 8/10