Finland is a country which does melancholy and raw emotion very, very well and whilst Finland may be famous for being the land of a thousand lakes, it is also famous for being the land of a thousand bands. One such band are Aegrus, who in their relatively short time in the black metal spotlight have managed to capture its heart and now, the Finns are back with their latest EP ‘The Carnal Temples’.
On the surface, ‘The Carnal Temples’ may appear to be your stereotypical black metal EP, but much like the rest of Aegrus’ work, this EP shows the band continuing on from masterpieces like ‘In Manus Satanas’ and ‘Wolves Howl Revenge’. Yes, this is an EP which takes its blast beats, its tremolo picking and demonic shrieks within its stride, but ‘The Carnal Temples’ isn’t all balls to the wall black metal, the Finns are able to show an expansion of melody and arrangements as tracks such as ‘Flesh and Blood’ and ‘In Death Rapture’ delve in with all the passion of Sargeist, Satanic Warmaster and White Death delivered through a beautiful production which never questions the EPs integrity as themes of occultism and Satanism reign supreme.
‘The Carnal Temples’ is a perfect example of Finnish black metal. It more than achieves what its sets out to do and that is to give a demonstration of what Aegrus are all about and if you’re looking for black metal that goes beyond its call of duty, then ‘The Carnal Temples’ is a good place to go.
