TEMPLE OF DREAD

TEMPLE OF DREAD     “Dreadspawn Dominion”

By Dr. Abner Mality

These dudes from the tiny German island of Spiekeroog (look it up, it’s a cool place) released a very solid album with their last effort “God of the Godless”. They maintain that status quo here; “Dreadspawn Dominion” is not really better than that album, but neither does it show any slippage. That establishes them as a very reliable old school death metal band.

To be brutally honest, there’s not much more than that to say. These guys are good players and the production here is MASSIVE. Nice crisp sound and not murky or cavernous. I really like the sandpaper larynx vocals…a little bit different from the usual gutturals but not to black metal levels. The songs are a good mix of tempos, with fast prevailing…they can deliver at both ends of the speed spectrum. “Rites Of Blasphemy” is a gnarly piece of violent aggression, probably the most direct and brutal track. But they excel with slower bulldozer pace as well…last track “Infernal Eternity” makes the most of its chunky riffs and throws in some melodic leads as well.

Of the rest, nothing is what you would call bad…I thought “Born To Rot” sounded a lot longer than it’s 4:20 running time indicated and the intro “Wings of Immortality” is the usual waste, but that goes without saying. In the end, you can get some real headbanging pleasure out of TEMPLE OF DREAD but in two months, you won’t remember anything here.

TESTIMONY RECORDS 

TEMPLE OF DREAD