From time to time, the same thing must be stated: to record an album, in any Metal genre that can be found, the bands must have an idea of how they want their music to sound. Obviously that more than 50 years since Metal birth were enough to create many ways, each one of them fitting on what the bands need. But some bands still commit the same mistake: the passion for low performance sonorities. And the Australian quartet TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE is another one who did such gross mistake, as can be heard on "Pillars of Damnation".

The quartet music is a form of Death/Black Metal, aggressive and brutal, with a massive impact on the ears. The musical technique is very good, and fits on their work (especially because the band has an Old School insight on their music, with very good contrasts of rhythms). Their music is savage, aggressive and full of energy, with everything in the due places, besides it's nothing new at all. Their main problem: they're veteran, and "Pillars of Damnation" is their fourth album, so why such dirty and nasty sonority? Yes, it's putrid and 'smoky', taking some efforts to understand what the band is playing. It's not the ideal sound quality for their music, for it is good and needs to be expressed in a cleaner way. To sound crude and aggressive doesn't mean to be filthy in a way that is hard to be understood.

On the songs, their musical potential becomes even cleaner, because the strength of "Contagion of Heresy" (a fine show of multiple musical arrangements, with very good guitar riffs), the brutal heavy grasp of "Death Eucharist" (the rhythmic solid work from bass guitar and drums is very good, creating good contrasts on the tempos), the crude and funereal approach on slow tempos used on "The Carrion Veil", and the funereal chants and extreme grunts of "In Absentia" (very good fast parts, indeed) are the best songs of "Pillars of Damnation", a promising album that can't reach its full potential due the sound quality.

That's what they need: a better producer on their next release, to have the due sonority to make the impact of TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE's music to be better assimilated.