Review by Ben for Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer (2022)

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