Tempel - The Moon Lit Our Path

Imposing yet accessible, the Arizonian instrumental "post-doom" duo serve up an incredibly solid iteration on their brilliant debut album without straying from their particular style

When I first came across the Arizona-based duo Tempel, I remember thinking "This is where the growls start....right......now! hum?!" many times over the course of On the Steps of the Temple, their crushing debut disc -- I couldn't believe that their ridiculously groovy blend of monolithic riffs and acoustic palette-cleansers could exist without some sort of vocals taking advantage of it. After a couple more listens, however, it became clear that Tempel with vocals would just distract from the sheer quality of the writing on display.

Now just a year and a half later we have their sophomore effort: The Moon Lit Our Path. Tempel stick to their guns on this one, delivering a hefty hour-long package, full of dark atmospherics a la Opeth accompanied by their particular mixture of doom-style riffs and death-esque blastbeats. Much like On the Steps of the Temple the songs stretch out into the 10 minute mark -- it's impressively cohesive and it actually feels natural to listen to the whole thing in one go -- despite the lengthy run-times the music scrolls past you almost like a mural or mosaic, chapter by chapter. The instrumentation is spare, with a tasteful bit of keyboard work rounding things off on the excellent closer "Dawn Breaks Over the Ruins". The rest of the album is similarly well-written, especially powerful opener "Carvings in the Door" and the title track.

The Moon Lit Out Path is a strong album, and Tempel have shown that their stellar first attempt wasn't just beginner's luck. With their chops properly demonstrated, I'm looking forward to the next evolution of their sound.