Temple of Void - Lords of Death

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Sometimes, good works lose their full potential due some musical feature that isn’t on the same level as the others. Many, many works in Metal history are proof of what I say. You can be limited on some aspects as a musician, but you must use your limitations to improve in a way that it will fit in such way on the music that no one will see your limitations. A fine example to this aspect is the voice of Kevin Heybourne on first ANGEL WITCH album. On the second album from North American band TEMPLE OF VOID, called “Lords of Death”, we have this same problem.

The band’s musical work is an aggressive form of Doom Death Metal with a modern insight, with slow funereal tempos and great Death Metal influence. But the only problem is that the vocals are not 100% compatible with their musical work. No, it’s not that Mike doesn’t have a good voice for the style, but his guttural is too low tuned for what they do. Besides that fact, the band has a very good work, using bitter tunes on the instrumental parts and good arrangements. Although it’s nothing new at all, it has great potential. The production of “Lords of Death” is good, finding a good balance between the sound clarity that their music needs with the raw sound that the band bears on their songs. The sound that flows from the speakers could be not as raw as they did (the sound could be a bit cleaner), but it’s not a total loss of efforts.

But they have potential to be a great band someday, as their funereal and somber form of aggressive music shows it clearly. The keyboard parts on the album (a contribution of the special guest Omar Jon Ajluni on organ and synths) makes their musical work even more bitter, and the best moments of the album can be heard on “Wretched Banquet” and it’s nasty and brutal grasp (with fine guitar riffs and solos), the funereal tempos of “A Watery Internment” (that shows a good work from bass guitar and drums), the oppressive sound mass created by the band on “The Gift”, the somber and elegant “Graven Desires” (where some melodies arises from the guitars), and the disgusting and raw atmosphere that “Deceiver in the Shadows” bears are their best moments on the album. If they adjust the vocals tunes and use a better production next time, the quintet will show what they really have.

Originality: 6
Songwriting: 9
Memorability: 5
Production: 5