024 - Spire - Temple of Khronos

 

 

“The bleakest truth of existence is the lack of any form of falsifiable scientific, philosophical, or theological evidence to support the notion of free will. As far as anyone can tell, we're forcibly strapped into a one way trolley cart, which was set in motion some 14 billion years ago. Every choice, thought, action, belief, and value mechanically pre-determined at the dawn of the universe. Quite simply, you're but an insignificant cog in the cosmological machine and your suffering was scribed at a temporally unimaginable distance.”  - V.S. anno 2021

It’s not often that one can bear witness to a descent into madness - a gradual loss of sanity and rational thought.  The human psyche is such a fragile thing.  A multitude of happenings may cause a mind to break, to lose touch with that common denominator that binds humanity together.  

A philosophical breakthrough, a sense of lost control, or perhaps there never was anything to control in the first place. Are we not just a collection of atoms that are merely reacting to stimuli?  The philosopher David Hume put it simply as, “Tis evident that all reasonings concerning matter of fact are founded on the relation of cause and effect, and that we can never infer the existence of one object from another, unless they be connected together, either mediately or immediately.”  Taking Hume’s musings to the logical conclusions we can infer that all things are merely an effect from the initial cause… dating all the way back to the Big Bang.  It is this very line of thought that Spire explores on their second full length album Temple of Khronos.

Spire’s musical dwellings are solidly within the realms of extreme metal - and that is where the easy classifications come to an end.  The duo play a mixture of black and death metal with a huge injection of dissonance, all within a framework of controlled chaos.  There is a constant threat that a ravishing rage dwelling beneath the surface may break through. Yet somehow, it is held back… for the most part.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the first arc of the album, beginning with Chronometer and ending with Hymn III - Harbinger the album slowly builds in intensity and pandemonium.  The album threw me for a loop the first few times listening.  Chronometer begins the album with a simple tone sounding much like a clock, increasing its pace and anxiety as the introduction progresses.  The build up had me expecting the album to absolutely explode out of the gates with face shredding riffs and lightning fast blast beats.  What I got was nearly the opposite.

The first real piece here is Hymn I - Tyrant.  Rather than getting obliterated, my ears were greeted with a mid paced double bass pattern with a massive chugging riff.  Dissonant guitar leads wail and weave overtop, completing the dichotomy of sounds that is at the center of Temple of Khronos.  A main riff or melody that maintains something for our mind to grasp onto and a whirlwind of disharmony that strips away at our sanity.

It's in this cacophony that Spire demonstrates just how well they have honed their craft.  Everything clashes, yet at the same time everything fits perfectly together.  It's as if we are bearing witness to something our mind cannot fully fathom. “The Thing cannot be described - there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy,” H.P. Lovecraft wrote in his short story The Call of Cthulhu when describing the titular extra dimensional being.  These very words describe the madness found within both his writings and this album.

Hymn II - Tormentor continues the slow swell of instability.  This composition is more than merely a song, it is a 10 minute epic through peaks and valleys of sonic derangement.  Be it the tightly controlled blast beats and riffing that begins the song, or the oddly melodic center, each section bleeds into the next effortlessly.  All this culminates in the ravings of a madman who has lost complete control of his faculties from six minutes forward.

The vocal shift that begins at 5:30 and continues through 6:15 minutes is one of the strongest vocal progressions I have heard in years.  Starting as a babbling lunatic the observer clearly hears that there are distinct words being spoken, though their exact meaning I have yet to discern.  The vocals continue to devolve until 6 minutes when there is nothing left but mad babbling.  The riff shifts, an animalistic roar, the metamorphosis from man to beast is complete.  The character's mind is no longer human.  

This microcosm of a transition is carried throughout the remainder of the piece.  It continually threatens to cast off the chains that bind it.   Somehow it maintains control, that is until Hymn III - Harbinger.

Finally!  Finally the album tosses restraint to the wayside and fully lets loose.  There is no feigned caution here, there is nothing left but animalistic rage.  This is what I was expecting with  Hymn I - Tyrant.  Two tracks later my expectations were fulfilled, and with it, the album shows its incredible prowess of pacing.  

The unease within the album builds while simultaneously the chaos is ever increasing.  The first few songs show an inordinate amount of restraint both musically and vocally while slowly building  itself into a mad frenzy.  With feigned control slowly eroding away, the mad babbling of Tormentor marks the turning point, where all restraint is lost.

The vocalist's prowess truly deserves special mention.  There are a minimum of six different vocal stylings on Temple of Khronos.  As one would expect there are black metal vocals in both the upper and lower register.  However there are also multiple variances of clean singing, mad babbling, spoken word, and even Turian throat singing.  Each song contains a diverse mixture of all these stylings, making the vocals a consistent highlight of the album.

At the time of this writing it is February 2021, and while there is a lot left to this year it is going to take one hell of an album to unseat this thing for album of the year.  Temple of Khronos hits every. single. aspect. that I look for in metal.  Challenging yet rewarding, it warrants repeated listens and offers new treasures to be discovered that may be lost on the first few listens.  The music shows a strong narrative both within its songs and as a whole.  The riffs are intricate, dissonant, and interesting.  The vocals are unique and versatile, complementing the music in an ideal manner.  The band also knows how to capture the listeners attention, especially at the start and finish of the album.

This album will not be for everyone, extreme metal is an acquired taste.  Dissonance is an acquired taste.  Unintelligible vocals are an acquired taste.  All that said, if this exploration of man's struggles with fatalism, predestination, and cause and effect sounds even remotely interesting I would urge you to give it a listen.  You may not like what you hear, but perhaps… just perhaps something will click and urge you to come back.  There is true beauty to be found here, it is merely shrouded in the grotesque.  

Note: at the artists request, there will be no interview released for this album.  

Acknowledgements

I cannot thank Void Stare enough for talking at length about this album as well as writing the forward for the review.  A huge heap of thanks to the small army of proofreaders - Kagami, Mark, Winterquilt and Blashy.  Without you guys these reviews aren’t nearly as refined or well articulated.  As always thank you to Blissmonkey for editing and promotion.