Temple of Bon Matin

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• Ed Wilcox

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"New Age energy rock" was the clever tag employed by a rock critic over at San Francisco's other urban weekly to describe the shattered, soul-discharging, psychedelic free-metal of Philadelphia's Temple of Bon Matin. Well, I must say, "Dude, get those crystals out of your ears!" The New Age ethos is based upon the peaceful and composed release and channeling of "energy" via quasi-spiritual techniques and healing practices that are about as volatile as Sunday worship at your average Dutch Reform church in Holland, Mich., which translates into ... BORING. So fuck that -- TOBM has made thunder, feedback, and confusion the fundamental elements of the shamanic noise-rock found on its latest disc, Infidel. Drummer and singer Ed Wilcox cries and chants through violent gusts of swirling, apocalyptic six-string distortion because he feels possessed by angels and demons waging war over his very being. This is Old Testament-inspired fire music that's way, way more reminiscent spiritually of Appalachian snake-handling rituals and banjo-led meditations on death and disease than anything going on in the home of your neighborhood Reiki specialist.