Band: Desolate Shrine
Title: Tenebrous Towers
Label: Hammer Of Hate
Distribution: Hammer Of Hate
Release date: 2011
Review: CD

A new band from Finland with a remarkable line-up: one multi-instrumentalist and two vocalists. They debut with Tenebrous Towers, consisting of seven titles with a total running time of just over three quarters of an hour.
Tenebrous Towers brings a mostly morbid, grim, sleazy and blackened form of slow- to mid-paced Underground Death Metal with a sound in the vein of the late eighties and early nineties from Sweden and Finland. And in spite of (or is it: because of?) the mainly un-fast tempo, this material is HEAVY! No, Tenebrous Towers is not a Doom-epos (at all); besides, more than once, the band accelerates mercilessly with parts that come close to ultra-blastness. Each track consists of both faster and slower pieces, nicely balanced of course.
The performance quality is above expectations, certainly for a project that just recently came to life. The trio isn’t renewing, nor do they sound modern, yet with this massive sound and the incredibly persuasive actualisation, Desolate Shrine are TOP! Everything fits: the interaction between instruments and duelling vocals, the morbid atmosphere, the production, the addition of acoustics, the balance between black and death, it’s an orgiastic feeling for my Black / Death-adoring ear drums. Very obscure, very oppressing, and indeed a recommendation for all demonic beings around…

86/100

Ivan Tibos.