The Crawl represents a needed change-up for the Temple of Void formula, but don’t worry, their death/doom rumble will still quake your innards.
Release date: March 6, 2026 | Relapse Records | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
I used to be a big fan of Temple of Void. I phrase it that way because their work has always been good, indisputably so, but their last couple albums have not held up to the explosively catchy and fun highs that their earlier stuff has. For me, Lords of Death is still their best. What that means though is there’s room for the death/doom Detroiters (good show) to surprise me and you know what? I think The Crawl achieves that pretty well.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Temple of Void have added *~variety~* to their music. They’re still death/doom to the core, don’t get me wrong. “Godless Cynic” for example has a rascal of a riff in the intro that’s menacing as it is playful, like looking into the Cheshire Cat’s toothy maw, and don’t get me started on that guitar work on the hook, damn it’s good. But there’s a couple other songs on here that employ what I can safely call a more traditional or heavy metal attitude along with some prettier atmosphere that’s like a crack in the dark clouds of their usual instrumental modality.
If you’ve heard the title track (clicky click above if not and enjoy the miniatures work) and thought all there was new on the album was that cleaner guitar tone marching along the doomed-up plod toward the end, you’re wrong. It’s certainly part of it, an aspect that hangs the whole album further up above the band’s subterranean caveman lurch, but the deep cuts house what’s really invigorating to Temple of Void‘s sound. “A Dead Issue” gleams in the rare sun, the dense and muddy foundation you’d expect sitting below like a bed of nails. This track has heavenly synths and organ-like melodic lines that are persistent throughout, not simple accoutrements to one or two sections of the track like it is for “Soulburn” (which is still good to be clear). “A Dead Issue” was made to soar despite its grim theme of disintegrating into a ghost of your former, corporeal self. Big “Graven Desires” vibes from Lords of Death, but a different style of execution.
Then it’s all doubled – no, tripled – down on with “Thy Mountain Eternal”, a frankly beautiful song about persistence and the failure to meet expectations. A recurring clean and pretty guitar line dangles above the track making appearances during key moments between verses, Mike Erdody’s (who’s pulling double duty on vocals and guitar on The Crawl) voice is percussive with each syllable that gurgles forth. It has a bit of a cinematic touch that feels like something Mastodon could’ve done on Crack the Skye or something. It all comes together with more of the aforementioned synths, but this time they’re icier, like someone literally climbing an insurmountable mountain only to freeze on the side with life slowly choked out of them by the punishing cold. This is one of my favorite tracks the band have ever done.
“The Twin Stranger” wraps it all up with a return to the more foreboding side of their death/doom tumult. As the longest track on The Crawl, but far from their longest ever, it has a slowed finality to it, pretty funereal though not literally in terms of what that means for doom metal. For Temple of Void, there’s still a lot of motion to it, deliberate repetition to drive the point home and create an eerie finish with Erdody’s story of being tracked and consumed by a malevolent doppelganger. It’s good, but represents what’s weaker on The Crawl along with a couple other tracks that mainly stay the course. The band have a bit of a rep to uphold of course, and even though they did went into this recording session with less preconceived notions on what the album or their sound should be, old habits die hard after all.
If this is the first cracking of Temple of Void‘s shell to incorporate other sounds and tones into their always-heavy music, it’s a great first jab. The trade-off of being ridiculously catchy in the ways “Self-Schism” from The World That Was or “The Hidden Fiend” from Lords of Death were for more dedicated aspects of atmosphere and really utilizing those large, expansive soundscapes they craft is one I can see paying off in the long run. They will never lose the death/doom soul, and they shouldn’t frankly, but giving your devils wings is rarely a bad call, right? Expression is key and in the end, The Crawl was a righteous change to an established sound that likely saved a slumper of an album for these seasoned vets. Well worth a listen for genre fans and those looking for some twinkling stars in the dead of night. May they expand their reign even further next time.
Band photo by David Dominic
