TEMPESTARII
Temple of Skies

A fair proportion of atmospheric black metal bands create said atmosphere through the building of a wall of tremolo picked, high treble noise (have no fear, there’s still plenty of that to be had – see the middle bridge on “Gaian Mind” for example), but on tracks like “Holy Dread” and “Shroud of Horns”, Tempestarii add clean acoustic passages: the folk-like, gentle nature of these provide unexpected relief from their otherwise punishing music.

The five-track album (which nevertheless comes in at just less than an hour) is everything you could hope for from an atmospheric black metal release: unsettling, dynamic and ritualistic.