ALBUM REVIEW: Hologram Temple – Stellar Master Elite
Where many blackened doom bands would just opt to play black metal at a snails pace, or wrap doom metal hooks up in a black metal production, STELLAR MASTER ELITE find a good balance between the two genres, even throwing in some dark ambient elements in order to make a more varied and interesting take on this often poorly done sub-genre. Their fourth, and most recent record, Hologram Temple, comes nearly four years after their last, III: Eternalism- The Psychospherical Chapter, and marks a notice step up in terms of songwriting, atmosphere and overall musicianship, making it arguably one of their most impressive albums to date.
NULL opens Hologram Temple on a very strong note, with grating, discordant guitars setting a bleak and jarring tone right out of the gate. It’s an incredibly thunderous, robust sounding track with dense, sludgy gutturals and crushing rhythm sections that really help to make this a dark and impressive way to start the album, making use of punishingly heavy music and well placed ambience to build a solid, claustrophobic atmosphere early on. This is quickly followed up with the heady triumvirate of FREEWILL DECRYPTED, APOCALYPSIS and AD INFINITUM, three songs that help elevate this album to new heights in very different ways. The first track, with it’s tight, powerful and melody driven sound really builds on the strengths of NULL, acting more as a short sharp shock of mid paced, visceral black metal riffs which lead into APOCALYPSIS a noticeably leaner and more energetic offering that ratchets up the speed and intensity, as well as layering on the atmosphere thickly. The third song of the aforementioned three, AD INFINITUM, moves at a relative funereal crawl and makes use of soundbites and ambience really well, making it sound all the more epic and impressive as a result, and making it one of the early stand outs on the album.
THE BEAST WE HAVE CREATED is a notable highlight, with driven, groove-laden guitar hooks and varied, caustic vocals being the focal point of the music. At points, it feels more like a traditional black metal track, but quickly reverts back to the gnarly, almost death metal sounding hook that opens this song. It’s a a brilliant song with a thick, unrelenting sound that holds the listeners attention from the first note to the last. After the primal and ambient driven AGITATION – CONSENT – WAR comes and goes, providing a brief, absorbing interlude, the listener gets treated to BLACK HOLE DEMENTIA, a huge, energetic track with a solid d-beat meter, which adds plenty of frenzied life into the proceedings and injects some killer crust punk elements into the sound.
THE SECRET OF NEVERENDING CHAOS is a haunting track, with some great, quirky instrumentation, which sets a steady, mid-tempo pace before launching into a dizzying motif that proves to be one of the more cacophonous on the whole record. It jumps between razor sharp black metal and soaring, epic sounding sections that work really well at creating a bleak yet aggressive sound, without losing any of its off kilter charms. TETRAGON closes this album with a lengthy, heavily atmospheric piece of music with plenty of primitive percussion, which eventually launch headlong into a fierce, blistering passage with dense droning ambience adding plenty of weight to the sound. It relies on a few motifs to carry it, and although some work really well, some of them outstay their welcome before long, and it ultimately makes this song one of the weaker songs on the record, despite it still being incredibly solid and impressive at points. It’s a decent way to close the record, but most of this track feels a little unnecessary, and the album wouldn’t have been hurt if it had been left absent.
Out of all of the albums STELLAR MASTER ELITE have put out, this is arguably their best. Despite the final song letting the side down somewhat, Hologram Temple is exemplary throughout, with each song standing out in its own right and making a massive impact on the overall sound and feel of the album. The music is intense and crushing at points, and manages to blend razor sharp precision and intricate musicianship in amongst all this extremity. The production is also incredibly solid too, being crisp enough to make every aspect of the music come to the fore, whilst also being thick and sludgy enough to give it a dark and dirty edge. This is the creative zenith of the band, at least up until this point in their musical careers, and it will be interesting to see how STELLAR MASTER ELITE surpass this record.
Rating: 8/10
Hologram Temple is out now via Unholy Conspiracy Deathwork.
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