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TEMPLE OF VOID “The Crawl”
TEMPLE OF VOID “The Crawl”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Album #5 for Michigan’s death-doom overlords is their “evolution” album, where they tinker with their core sound and wind up with something a bit different. Needless to say, this always carries a risk…tinker too much and you wind up in “Cold Lake” territory and there goes your fanbase. Tinker too little, you drown in stagnant waters.
I think TEMPLE OF VOID gets it just about right here. I will say right off the bat, this is their most accessible and least death metal album. They say they are drawing influence from grunge and goth music, but they don’t go whole hog into either genre. Death metal is still here, especially in the gravel-chewing vocals of Mike Erdody, which remain pleasingly gruesome. But first track “Poison Icon” immediately signals some changes, as it starts with a prolonged guitar jam and a quicker pace. The doom is not as present and there’s no attempt to keep a dragging pace in each song. “Godless Cynic” is nice and crunchy and displays a cool swinging vibe to its riffing.
Every song is different from the one before while retaining well known aspects of T.O.V. The title track starts very much in death/doom fashion and is probably the closest to what you expect. On the other side, “A Dead Issue” shakes things up with lots of synth drone and a grungy pace. “Thy Mountain Eternal” is the most melodic just and probably my least favorite while “Soulburn” has such a languorous yet heavy groove, one feels like they’re floating down a river. “The Twin Stranger” brings things to a satisfying conclusion with a long (but not too long) track that sounds both traditional and new at once.
I think TEMPLE OF VOID will pick up more fans than they lose with “The Crawl”. Although I will always have a soft spot for the sheer horror-drenched death/doom of the early stuff.
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