Temple of Void

Temple of Void are a death/doom metal band from Detroit. Their approach melds somber aspects of early British doom metal with the energy, aggression, and basic, power-driven riffing of vintage American death metal. Less than a year after assembling, they released the three-track Demo MMXIII in May 2013. A month later, they signed deals with four international labels to distribute it. Of Terror and the Supernatural, their album debut, appeared the following year and received global acclaim from the underground and metal press, winning them tour slots regionally and at the annual Berserker Festival. Following 2017's lauded Lords of Death, guitarist Don Durr replaced founding member Eric Blanchard and toured with the band for the first time. The World That Was appeared in 2020, garnering positive reviews from top-tier metal mags and websites, ultimately resulting in Temple of Void signing to Relapse Records. Summoning the Slayer appeared in 2022. Temple of Void was founded in 2012 by guitarists Alex Awn and Eric Blanchard. The pair attended the same Krav Maga class and knew of one another from the local scene. Awn was (and remains) a member of Hellmouth, while Blanchard played guitar in various black metal and grindcore bands. The pair recruited Mike Errody (aka Mike Tuff of Acid Witch) as its guttural lead vocalist and friends/ local musicians Brent Satterly on bass and Jason Pearce (Feisty Cadavers) on drums. Less than a year after beginning rehearsal, they issued the digital three-track Demo MMXIII. The set won acclaim across the internet and led to the band signing distribution deals with four different labels internationally and articles in the metal press. They played their first gigs around Detroit and Ohio. Less than a year later, Of Terror and the Supernatural, their debut long-player, was released by indie Canadian label Rain Without End. Temple of Void played local and regional shows and the opening slots for national tours that passed through Metro Detroit. They also won a slot at the year's Berserker Fest, garnering a legion of new fans in the process. They recruited New York-based director William Saunders to produce a music video for the track "Savage Howl," and recorded a cover of "Os Abysmi Vel Daath" that appeared on the various-artists compilation Morbid Tales! A Tribute to Celtic Frost. They played Shadow Kingdom Fest and Hell's Headbash in 2016, and made notable appearances at Blood of the Wolf Fest, Metal Threat, and Shadow Woods. In July 2017, Temple of Void released their sophomore long-player, Lords of Death, on the prolific Ohio-based indie label Shadow Kingdom Records. Just before its release, Blanchard amicably left the band and was replaced by ex-Writhing guitarist Don Durr just in time for their support tour. They played a Detroit festival show with the Suicide Machines, a reunited Negative Approach, and others, as well as the Psycho Las Vegas Festival with Danzig, Boris, and Voivod. In November, they joined fellow Detroiters' the Black Dahlia Murder on a Midwest tour. Following a rest and some local shows, the band recorded the track "Harvest of Flesh" for the split-digital EP Delivering the Dead on Germany's Revel in Flesh. Though 2020 saw no touring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Temple of Void stayed exceptionally busy. In January, they released "Ravenous Eyes in the Distance" as a flexidisc single for Decibel magazine. In March, they contributed three tracks to the various-artists comp 4 Doors to Death II alongside Fetid Zombie, Nucleus, and Ectoplasma. That month also saw the issue of the full-length The World That Was on Shadow Kingdom Records. It was recorded in 2019 at Mount Doom Studio and produced by Clyde Wilson. The offering was initially met with some confusion by longtime fans as the band had grown out of their sound, traveling across groove and post-metal, and using clean choruses and even synths. That said, three months after it was released, metal publications on both sides of the Atlantic widely celebrated it. Since touring remained impossible as the pandemic went on, Temple of Void spent their time writing and recording demos. They signed a multi-album deal with Relapse in late 2021 and issued Summoning the Slayer, their fourth album, in June 2022. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Arthur Rizk, the seven-song set offered a greater focus on claustrophobic atmospherics, detailed melodies, multi-layered textures, and even clean vocals in some of the choruses.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo