NEGATIVE BIAS & GOLDEN DAWN, (The) - Temple of Cruel Empathy / Lunar Serpent Split CD 2018

Split releases live or die by chemistry, and this one between Austria's Negative Bias and Golden Dawn has it in spades. Two bands, one bleak mission, and enough melodic black metal density to darken an entire afternoon.

Negative Bias bring their signature atmospheric black metal weight to the Temple of Cruel Empathy side, all suffocating atmosphere and deliberate compositional sprawl, somewhere in the DEATHSPELL OMEGA tradition of black metal that takes itself seriously enough to earn it. Golden Dawn, one of Austria's longer-running acts in the gothic and melodic black metal space, counter with Lunar Serpent, pulling the split into darker, more melancholic territory. The pairing works because neither band is content to just play fast and call it evil. This is dark aesthetic black metal for people who actually sit with records.

Format: CD. Split album. Released 2018. Origin: Austria. Genre: atmospheric black metal, ambient metal, melodic gothic black metal.

Fans of: DEATHSPELL OMEGA, ASMODI, NOCTURNES MIST.