There has been an interesting trend in death metal lately: rather than blasting forward with the most aggressive and angry music possible, impressing listeners with a high level of technicality, or wooing them with straightforward blast beats and the most technical music imaginable, death metal is flirting with doom. That's a good thing.
This seems to stem from the movement of death metal getting back to its roots, as bands like Autopsy and Carcass recently got a lot of attention, and a bunch of "throwback"-style death metal bands sprung up for a moment. That movement, married with the recent upswing in the popularity of doom, has resulted in some seriously cool music, and Temple of Void are a great example of a band doing this well.
Their latest record, Of Terror and the Supernatural, is everything one would hope for from doomy death metal. The vocals are low, slow and evil, sounding directly from the crypt. The music employs a lot of the riffing of classic death metal, but with a decidedly modern flavour that makes the recording sound very mature. It also manages to blend modern doom techniques such as the slow, melodic interlude and the harmonic lead in with classic-sounding music, creating new and exciting songs like "Savage Howl" and "To Carry This Corpse Evermore," two of the strongest releases on the record.
On Of Terror and the Supernatural, Temple of Void cleanly and creatively blend the experimental stylings of modern doom and good old-fashioned death metal. While there are of course a few songs that lack the enthusiasm of the rest of the record — "Beyond the Ultimate" is a little on the boring side — ultimately, this is a strong and intriguing new record.
(Shadow Kingdom)This seems to stem from the movement of death metal getting back to its roots, as bands like Autopsy and Carcass recently got a lot of attention, and a bunch of "throwback"-style death metal bands sprung up for a moment. That movement, married with the recent upswing in the popularity of doom, has resulted in some seriously cool music, and Temple of Void are a great example of a band doing this well.
Their latest record, Of Terror and the Supernatural, is everything one would hope for from doomy death metal. The vocals are low, slow and evil, sounding directly from the crypt. The music employs a lot of the riffing of classic death metal, but with a decidedly modern flavour that makes the recording sound very mature. It also manages to blend modern doom techniques such as the slow, melodic interlude and the harmonic lead in with classic-sounding music, creating new and exciting songs like "Savage Howl" and "To Carry This Corpse Evermore," two of the strongest releases on the record.
On Of Terror and the Supernatural, Temple of Void cleanly and creatively blend the experimental stylings of modern doom and good old-fashioned death metal. While there are of course a few songs that lack the enthusiasm of the rest of the record — "Beyond the Ultimate" is a little on the boring side — ultimately, this is a strong and intriguing new record.
