Death Metal
USA

Released 6th March, 2026

Detroit denizens deliver diatribes dedicated to destitution, debunking death/doom doctrine.

Moving away from the death Doom of last album. Instead they herald a death n roll flavour that matches rawness with entombed.
With a blend of classic, doom and death metal’s, TEMPLE OF VOID have tempered a kind of steel that slices and bludgeons here on their latest album, THE CRAWL.

I would like to put my tuppence worth in and say this is almost a stoner/death band with a twist.

There’s plenty to get stuck into so we’d better get stuck in.
The album starts with POISON ICON, complete with a great curveball guitar solo and gallop riff that would feel at home on an Iron Maiden album, before Mike Erdody’s guttural vocals shut that idea down. Classic death metal becomes the order of the day, but even this comes with a gothic caveat at the chorus. POISON ICON has a deceptively classic metal sound while retaining a bone crunching, death metal visage.

Later on, GODLESS CYNIC and THE CRAWL are reminders of the death metal that is old school. Tremolo picking, punctual drumming and a bass that could cut a diamond, all done with a scene setting atmosphere that gets the spine shivering.

And then we get to the show stealer that is A DEAD ISSUE. A psychedelic, gothic track so out of leftfield, yet it still demands and commands our attention. Temple of void rolled the dice and came up winning here. With some synth, jam session mentality and even some hammond organ, A DEAD ISSUE delivers a remarkable stoner metal piece of music.

It borders on prog rock.

Not unlike its follow up, THY MOUNTAIN ETERNAL, which reclaims much of the gothic charisma heard previously, but down a more traditional gothic death channel. By replacing gloom with grandiose applications, it becomes a most accessible number.
By now, it is becoming quite apparent that at least one member has been getting their goth on, as SOULBURN blends some actual danceable hooks to proceedings. I can only praise the experimental approach without a care in the world about the concept. Although, the track fits the album in a surprisingly gratifying way.

Finishing with the straight out ballistic death metal bluster of THE TWIN STRANGER may, at first, confound the albums flow, it does act as a refreshing closer. If anything but to allay any confusion as to where TEMPLE OF VOID sit in the scheme of things, but not without some of that doom character.

We can all appreciate a band that expands their sound or broadens style as they progress technically as musicians. That may not be the case with THE CRAWL. I get the impression the TEMPLE OF VOID feel it’s time to push themselves to a more artistic, even spiritual, level.
Maybe, by letting their hearts dictate what is good for a song, they are finding an importance in what sits well before what sells well.

Maybe it’s the other way around but I refuse to let cynicism cloud my thoughts on what I hear on this album. It is a familiar, yet bold choice by them that sits well with me. If the future of TEMPLE OF VOID continues with this path, I will not complain, one bit.

THE CRAWL is out now through Relapse Records, and available to stream from all major platforms.

Also available as digital download and on physical formats via the TEMPLE OF VOID Bandcamp here.