I’m so tired of writing about how every week is more fucked than the week before it, no matter how it might seem to be a convenient crutch for opening these. I really want to be able to stop doing that. But wars, religious oppression, rising prices, political figures that better be in fucking comas for their lack of effort makes everything that much worse.

“Toward Dead Temples” is a split effort from Baltimore black metal crushers Nixil and Portland (West Coast version) black/death metal beasts Drouth that aims to flatten your mind for a while as you struggle with all of this. Imagine me waving my hands around. Anyway, Nixil—vocalist A., guitarists S.G. and A.B., bassist A.R., drummer M.T.—lash out of Christofascism and resulting dictatorships, torching a warped world that grows more poisonous by the day. Drouth—vocalist/guitarist Matt Stikker, guitarist/vocalist John Edwards, bassist/vocalist Matt Solis, drummer Patrick Fiorentino—rumble with force, crawling over a decaying land as they help spill cauldrons of lava to burn everything away.

“Never Rise Again” starts the Nixil section, and it is particularly agitated, active guitars drawing blood, yells echoing and bouncing off walls. A melodic charge opens and lathers, bringing total darkness as an alien, detached voice warbles, “INRI to never rise again,” howls claw, and hypnosis prevails. “Bloody Footprints on the Path of Bones” charges and chugs, howls scarring as the pace goes into atmospheric form. The singing staggers as guitars lurch, hurtling into a fiery flash point, the playing slowing to draw out the torture, the heat smearing soot. “I Am Not Here” is slower to start, strange singing drizzling, sounding inspired by Tom G. Warrior. The strange aura increases its reach, piercing as the calculated pace begins to thrash, tornadic dust chokes, and feral intensity strikes. Lead spill as the tempo punishes, melodies flooding and delivering a tingling finish.

“Cathartes Aura” begins Drouth’s portion, and it’s speedy and vicious, guitars attacking as punishing howls rain down, wrecking and ripping its way into you. The storm picks up strength, terrifying cries chewing nerve endings, a melodic surge arriving and pulling you under, colorful electricity cresting and burning off. “The Outer Church” mashes with maniacal force, blazing and tearing flesh from bone, the soloing erupting and spitting lava from its core. The playing flattens and thrashes, somehow figuring out a way to truck even harder, melodies providing the fuel, catapulting into a violent finish as Stikker howls, “I feel my breath claw at my throat as it is parted by a monstrous hand.”

Pairing Nixil and Drouth made sense on the surface and proves even more so on “Toward Dead Temples,” a split effort that feels perfectly timed. The world rarely has felt this volatile and also just filled with the dumbest fucking shit, so music aiming to take a torch to everything just might be the remedy. This is unforgiving stuff from two bands that are about as ugly and punishing as they come, with this an ideal one-two punch.  

For more on Nixil, go here: https://nixil.bandcamp.com/

For more on Drouth, go here: https://drouth.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album, go here: https://nixil.bandcamp.com/album/toward-dead-temples-nixil-drouth

Or here: https://drouth.bandcamp.com/album/toward-dead-temples