Temple Guard – Citadel in Flames

Nottingham’s premier metal punks return with a follow-up to their 2022 debut album, Spear of the Revenant. Since its release on Eco-Defense Records, Temple Guard have made a considerable impact on the UKHC scene, bringing live shows that never fail to incite a flurry of fists, flying spin kicks, and punishing riffs. Enter the pit at your own risk.

Citadel in Flames adds to the band’s impressive catalog of brutality: eight songs in 25 minutes of sonic savagery, recorded and mixed by drummer Jason Frye at the legendary Century Audio in Kent, raising the bar even higher for UK metalcore. The band doesn’t stray far from its roots—you can still hear the influence of ’90s metalcore bands like All Out War and Morning Again, as well as more recent bands like xRepentancex. It also features lashings of hardcore punk, thrash, and death metal. Across eight tracks, Temple Guard unleash their contempt for humanity’s destruction of Mother Earth, the abhorrent genocide in Gaza, and the religious dogma used to justify the slaughter of innocent civilians, soundtracking an apocalyptic world consumed by violence, greed, and ecological collapse.

Hard, heavy themes, accompanied by annihilating riffs, foreboding bass tones, and hammering drums, hit with fierce precision. If you’re not radicalized into an environmentally aware, antifascist, ski mask-wearing vegan soldier, then I’m not sure you’re embracing the message of Temple Guard.

The album opens with “Evisceration,” a pro-animal-rights speech backed by a menacing guitar riff that evolves into black metal-esque tremolo picking, sinister chugs, and hard-hitting drums. It’s a fitting introduction to an album that reflects the devastation unfolding around us while offering a grim warning of what lies ahead. The track is swiftly followed by “Blood Makes the Rain Fall,” which, in my opinion, is the album’s highlight. The intro sounds like the end of days itself. The monstrous wall of guitar and bass, plus the tremolo-picked lead, gives the track a sense of ominous urgency—the cacophony then gives way to demonic vocals.

Prayers unanswered
Oaths ignored
Indiscriminate death
Eternal war

Halfway through this onslaught, the tempo slows briefly without losing impact, then speeds up into an earth-shattering assault on the ears, a crescendo of chaos that sounds like the apocalypse. If eternal war has a soundtrack, this is it. The variety of vocal styles on this track is impressive, from guttural growls to aggressive hardcore barking and fry screams. What more could you want?

The fourth track features John Olley, former vocalist for the legendary, now-defunct UK metalcore band xRepentancex, hailing from the southeast. Despite lasting just three years, xRepentancex remain an important and influential band in UKHC. John’s vocal style contrasts well with that of Temple Guard’s masked frontman. Hardcore and metal vocals combine in unholy matrimony. This track best exemplifies the band’s hardcore-meets-blackened-death-metal sound.

Temple Guard have set the bar for UK metalcore in 2026, cementing their place at the forefront of the underground. They channel the militant, uncompromising vegan metalcore of Earth Crisis and Mother Earth’s vengeful wrath.