No Temple

Turkish experimental black metal act Blliigghhtted return with their second full length album of 2015, No Temple. Spearheaded by primary songwriter/lyricist Ruhanathanas, who has worked with Viranesir, on keyboards and vocals, Blliigghhtted is rounded out by Merdümgiriz from Destroyers of Humanity on drums and vocals and Emir Toğrul of Yayla and Viranesir on guitars, bass, vocals and keyboards. If you’re familiar with any work from these members, then No Temple should sound strangely familiar, despite the stark departure from their previous work.

Abandoned the free flowing, stream of consciousness songwriting style of their demo and debut full length album, No Temple presents eleven tracks of dissonant and jarring black metal. The tracks writhe and twist between raw, buzzsaw driven black metal, swirling, atmospheric density and crawling, sludge-ridden cacophony. Most of the vocals are delivered by Emir Toğrul in a deep rasped style that manages to sound bassy and hollow at the same time, with a wide array of crazed backing vocals offering support along the way. The percussion runs rampant, easily switching between varying speeds of blasting. There are still flippant keyboards floating throughout, but the focus is on the raw guitars and the unsettling vocals.

As a whole, No Temple is just as unnerving as the band’s back catalog. While most of the album lacks the ambient touches that ran rampant in the band’s earlier works, the swirling yet dissonant trem riffing and wild vocal patterns deliver what we’ve come to expect from the band. The album ends with quite a surprise, as the last track, “Doubt”, is a fourteen minute ambient piece which seems to blend upbeat wandering with clear, vibrant keyboard notes, which is a strangely uplifting ending for such a dark and twisted black metal album.

No Temple offers a lot of variety but retains a cohesive feel across the eleven tracks of disparaging black metal. The ambient track seems slightly out of place, but it does offer a glimmer of hope among the dark and bleak passages. While Blliigghhtted’s style really seems to be an acquired taste, those looking for raw dissonance and challenging songwriting should check this out. Blliigghhtted seems to be in their own league when it comes to creating such honest and unsettling black metal.

Written for The Metal Observer.