Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer (2022)Release ID: 37512
The album cover for Temple of Void's latest release is pretty fucking awesome, so I had high hopes that this death doom album would deliver the goods. Unfortunately that hasn't turned out to be the case. This failure isn't due to there being anything particularly bad on Summoning the Slayer (well, if I ignore the closing acoustic ballad which is strongly at odds with the rest of the album), but neither is there anything overly impressive. This is just six tracks of by the numbers death doom that neither stirs me emotionally or crushes me into submission. The deep growls of vocalist Mike Erdody are more than adequate, but the riffs and drums create very little emotional impact and occasionally venture into boredom-town. This album is a warm, somewhat comforting, glass of milk when I require a strong cup of coffee or nice bottle of shiraz to really get me going these days. I think a lukewarm 3 stars is appropriate.
2022 RANKING (63 releases so far)
53. Deathhammer - Electric Warfare - 3 stars
54. Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer - 3 stars
55. Sadness - Tortuga - 3 stars
2022 DOOM RANKING (17 releases so far)
14. Hangman's Chair - A Loner - 3.5 stars
15. Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer - 3 stars
16. Mizmor - Wit's End - 2.5 stars
I've been an ardent supporter of the Detroit five-piece for some time now and previous full-length, The World That Was, was one of my favourite albums of 2020 and one I purchased on vinyl such was it's quality, so obviously I was really looking forward to Summoning the Slayer. So how does the latest album shape up in comparison to it's earlier brethren? My initial reaction was that Summoning the Slayer was a bit underwhelming, but subsequent listens have seen me modify that stance. I think that I was experiencing a case of reality being unable to live up to expectations, so was initially too harsh in my reaction. Summoning the Slayer takes the band's melodic death doom template from their earlier work and this time around go down a more gothic-led path than the spacey/psychedelic trip they took on The World That Was. I am often more than a little ambivalent towards gothic metal, so that may also explain my initial reticence regarding the new record I suppose. To the band's credit, they incorporate the gothic trappings exceedingly well and don't fall into the trap of overdoing it and tipping over into excessive theatricality than ruins so much gothic-flavoured metal for me.
The album starts off strongly with Behind the Eye, a fairly straight-up slab of cavernous death metal which is followed by possibly the highlight of the album Deathtouch which is where the gothic guitar work first makes an appearance. The lighter melancholic tone of the gothic lead guitar works in marked contrast to the heaviness and crunch of the riffing and the guttural growling of excellent vocalist Mike Erdody to provide an extremely satisfying blend of light and dark motifs. I don't want to oversell the gothic side of the album as this is still overwhelmingly a (fairly melodic) death doom album but the band do like to bring in elements from other styles into their songwriting, such as the space and psychedelic rock they utilised on their previous album. Ultimately it comes down to whether Temple of Void have the necessary heft behind them to convince as a death doom outfit and I think they illustrate once more that indisputedly, yes they do, being an exceedingly tight and proficient unit with superior songwriting ability. Kudos to them that they have no desire to keep trotting out the same LP over and over again, but whilst trying out new sounds refusing to abandon what appealed to their growing legion of fans in the first place. True, Summoning the Slayer may be more of a grower and less an immediate rush than previous releases, but those pesky increased expectations must come with the territory for any decent band I suppose and the quality does ultimately win out over any initial hesitancy.
