Harsh, unforgiving, monochromatic. Our Place Of Worship Is Silence is the sort of old school Swedish death metal worship that pummels you into a pulp. Their latest offering, The Embodiment Of Hate is seven tracks of truly rib crushing death metal. With a potent range of vocal styles, devilish riffs and the same sort of tortured madness that made bands like Nihilist so good it's hard to escape Our Place Of Worship Is Silence's almost mechanical dedication to brutality. There is something almost otherworldly to the bands crippling odes to death, destruction and gore. As you find yourself going through repeat listens and digging into hidden and fucked up grooves you start to fall ever deeper in love with a sound that is strangely magical. Sure it takes a while to crack that rough exterior, but the more I listen, the more I like it. Our Place Of Worship Is Silence may love to blast and find those old school grooves but god damn can they write a solid death metal song.
One of the biggest appeals of The Embodiment Of Hate is the band's wide open production style. This allows for multilayered growls with a The Body-like shriek counteracting a more traditional, and dominant death roar. It adds a nice touch of black metal, and though the music remains monochromatic you can start to get a glimpse into the bleak and fucked up realities that define this band. At times though this wide open production style and single minded dedication to all that is heavy works against them. It means that by the end of the record you feel worn out. Our Place Of Worship Is Silence don't have the sheer riffs of Asphyx or the songwriting chops of Nails and while they certainly are good enough to merit comparisons to both of those bands they can't quite meet that bar. At times the riffs get so heavy and over the top that you start to wonder if this entire thing is a joke, and the fact that it's all intentional isn't necessarily a great thing.
In the words of the guy currently driving my tour van, “I can't say that I dislike this, but I don't know if I really like it either.” The dude is on point. While Our Place Of Worship Is Silence is wonderfully nightmarish, things constantly feel understated and almost as if The Embodiment Of Hate isn't quite reaching its full potential. It makes me excited for the future of the band and frustrated in the present. Their tone is on point and execution strong, it's just that sometimes you don't have the songwriting chops to back it up. Still, Our Place Of Worship Is Silence can be a fucking blast, and you have to love the madness of their music. They go for it with a sort of breakneck intensity and when they are on, they are truly on. As is though, The Embodiment Of Hate could be so much more, and while that leaves me blue balled, I'm also rather curious.
Score: 6/10
