Temtris are a band from Australia, formed at the end of last century as Labyrinth. After a while, the moniker changed to Labyrinthia, and under the current moniker they released two full length albums, Threshold in 2003 (self-release), and Masquerade in 2007, their debut for Battlegod Productions. After quite a period of silence, the band returned in January 2014 with a new single, called Your Time Has Come. And soon after, the band finally finished their third studio full length, Shallow Grave, which will include that song too as bonus.
Shallow Grave lasts for forty five minutes and brings a catchy, somewhat infantile form of melodic Extreme Metal. it starts not that bad at all, with Captured, which is a heavy song with an interesting lead and a satisfying vocal duel in between grunter Llew and female vocalist Genevieve. With some open-mindedness one can consider this track a tribute to the so-called ‘female fronted’ scene from Norway and, especially, The Netherlands (not of the operatic kind). Unfortunately the thrill is gone pretty soon. The album goes on in the very same vein, i.e. a melodic form of modern ‘female-fronted’ Gothic / Death Metal, but it’s filled with clichés, juvenile would-be heaviness, and predictable compositions. Besides, the grunts are enormously weak, and the voice of Genevieve is not that steady and stabilized either whole the time. She’s not another operatic singer, but in the higher regions she loses it from time to time. Of course you can expect the necessary epic semi-ballad stuff too, and… Pfff, I do not feel to spend any more of my energy in this review. Not terrible, but way too ‘empty’…