{"id":260104,"date":"2025-07-12T22:58:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T22:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/260104\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T22:58:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T22:58:18","slug":"review-the-biscuit-merchant-tempora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/260104\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Biscuit Merchant – Tempora"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published by Cooper<\/strong><\/a> on July 12, 2025July 12, 2025<\/p>\n

\"\"Artwork by AI<\/p>\n

Style: progressive death metal, melodic death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Alkaloid<\/a>, Opeth, Blood Incantation, Persefone
Country: Michigan, United States
Release date: 13 June 2025<\/p>\n

You see the AI-generated artwork and read the utterly inane band name. You think to yourself, \u201cHere we go with another over-ambitious sci-fi themed zany djent solo-project.\u201d Oh how wrong you are. The Biscuit Merchant<\/strong> isn\u2019t a djent band but rather a one-man prog death project from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Tempora marks his tenth full-length release since debuting in 2017. From the name to the spacefaring artwork, there\u2019s an air of tongue-in-cheek ambition, but beneath the surface is a sincere and sprawling attempt at progressive death metal.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite being most easily categorized as progressive (and melodic) death metal, the fusion of genres that The Biscuit Merchant <\/strong>utilizes on Tempora feels a lot more like a tour of the metal scene at large. For every head-bang inducing chugger of a riff (\u201cVictorious\u201d and \u201cTempora\u201d) there\u2019s a galloping, power-metal tinged melody (\u201cKill Time\u201d and \u201cAmidakuji\u201d) or a wah-laden, classic rock infused solo (\u201cUncommon Enemies\u201d and \u201cJudgement Day\u201d). The eclectic fusion of genres ends up sounding something like Alkaloid<\/strong> meets Xoth<\/strong> meets Opeth<\/strong>, but the gravitational force holding Tempora\u2019s disparate influences together is its vocal performance. Both clean and harsh, the vocals give each track a catchy edge that goes great lengths in making the album feel cohesive, despite never employing any overtly technical or flashy techniques. Unfortunately, for as much effort as the vocals put towards making the album\u2019s vast scope cohesive, the song structures do the opposite.<\/p>\n

The eight tracks that make up Tempora fall into two categories: those that roughly follow a traditional song structure and those that don\u2019t. My issue lies with the latter. Tracks like \u201cKill Time\u201d and \u201cCelestial Awakening\u201d each make use of a through-composed structure that falls apart in the songs\u2019 back halves. Riffs are thrown at the listener, and not one seems to follow logically from what came before or flow smoothly into what comes after. This style can be done well\u2014look no farther than BTBAM<\/strong> or last year\u2019s critical darling Blood Incantation<\/strong>\u2019s Absolute Elsewhere\u2014but its execution here is too haphazard. The structures of the album\u2019s two longest tracks, \u201cJudgement Day\u201d and \u201cTempora,\u201d are equally hairy, with the title track finale featuring an entirely unprecedented three-minute surf rock segment that almost made me quit the album entirely. Ideally, a through-composed track has some sort of arc that allows the listener to form expectations about what will come next, and the best bands know when to conform to and when to subvert those expectations. The Biscuit Merchant<\/strong> leans far too heavily on subversion.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, when The Biscuit Merchant<\/strong> employs a traditional song structure like on \u201cVictorious\u201d (a shameless rip-off of Opeth<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cMaster\u2019s Apprentices\u201d) and \u201cUncommon Enemies,\u201d The Merchant<\/strong> delivers solid and easily enjoyed bits of progressive death metal. While the instrumental \u201cAmidakuji\u201d goes a bit up its own ass with the number of solos and the intro track \u201cTemporal Delusion\u201d is just an intro track, they too are solid cuts that don\u2019t crumble under unwieldy song structures. Noticeably, these are the four shortest tracks on the album, leaving the vast majority of the record to suffer The Biscuit Merchant<\/strong>\u2019s songwriting woes.<\/p>\n

Tempora is certainly an ambitious record, and adventurous metalheads may find individual moments worth dissecting. But for all its energy and genre splicing, Tempora lacks the compositional maturity to tie its parts into a compelling whole. Hopefully, The Biscuit Merchant <\/strong>lets his goods spend a few extra minutes in the oven from here on out.<\/p>\n

Recommended tracks: Victorious, Amidakuji, Uncommon Enemies
You may also like: Resuscitate<\/a>, Xoth<\/a>, Witch Ripper<\/a>
Final verdict: 5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related links: Bandcamp<\/a> | Spotify<\/a> | Official Website<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Instagram<\/a> | Metal-Archives<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: independent<\/p>\n

The Biscuit Merchant<\/strong> is:
\u2013 Justin Lawnchair (everything)<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n