The newly found alchemists of old, cohorts of the mysterious occult beliefs, canvassers of the version of the blurred past that made Metal music so darkly enchanting and rich. Actually I didn't expect a band from Norway to indulge the mischiefs of NWOBHM and traditional Doom Metal mythical malevolence, but today everything goes. I am sure that once it was claimed upon the rising of the Swedish CANDLEMASS, attaching themselves into a scene ruled by British bands back in the early 80s. Cruz Del Sur Music signed MAGISTER TEMPLI for the release of this here debut album named "Lucifer Leviathan Logos", a practitioner's venue of the timeworn occult infatuations of traditional Metal, gloomy, drenched in black, partaking various influences and resemblances to BLACK SABBATH, MERCYFUL FATE, CANDLEMASS, PAGAN ALTAR, HEAVY LOAD, HOLOCAUST and WITCHFINDER GENERAL among others. All in all, MAGISTER TEMPLI were able to find the secret dark path to keep their Doomish pledges and allocations energetic enough to sustain a full time attention to their material.

Mainly riff based, less melodic and a slightly more punchy, conveying a hefty tool box of old school riffing and impressive drum and bass rhythms that will carry you on an expedition through medieval times, MAGISTER TEMPLI's churning of occult mysticism and strange beliefs based on the lord of the red hot downstairs is quite intriguing. "Lucifer Leviathan Logos" is largely 80s driven Metal music, rhythms can be recognized as assorted and varied, Akoman shares a few Geezer Butler thumping techniques while Grimmdun blistering wildly with speed or stomping ground with epic proportioned slow tempos. Baphomet and Patriark share various type of soloing that played out pretty well, however not too much twin guitar action of harmonies. I felt the absence of melodies; yet on the other hand, this form of darkness and epicenes needs a different type of musical scenery. Furthermore, a reasonable number of the displayed riffs, some fairly known and others giftedly written, atoned for the mentioned deficiency. Vocally, Abraxas d'Ruckus has that slight operatic chills of Messiah Marcolin or the mid voice of King Diamond, but his overall performance placed him a tad closer to the morals and merits of the large sum of mid to high range NWOBHM vocalists, like Brian Ross of SATAN for instance.

Crossing the river Styx, I bumped into "Lucifer", not the lord of the underworld, but an amazing outtake of this album, an early 80 trooping presentation of an epic song, marsh riffing, atmospheric demonstration of vocals, several early CANDLEMASS orchestrations along with a charming chorus that really took my breath away. "Tiphareth" and "Logos" taking the stance of early MERCYFUL FATE, slashing with NWOBHM constructiveness, a devilish enticement all through, assorted riffing. Probably those two are the album's most progressed tracks, well perceived attention to details, fine arrangements resulting in properly interesting outputs. "Master of the Temple" really got to me with that opening main riff, such an 80s electrification, so traditional and appealing, galloping through the fields of darkness, whispering to one's soul that evil has arrived to plunder the sanctity of the light, right into the abyss. I really enjoyed the solo section, a true Michael Denner and Hank Sherman exchanges. In a nutshell my friends, this a good start for this Norwegian crew hanging on to the past, revealing the nature of evil once more with a different face. The large number of songs is equally stimulating as some of the earlier works of the genre. There are a few that are tricky like "Vitriol" and "Leviathan", which weren't that inspiring, but certainly still something ample to take pleasure from. Check this album out.