The death metal subgenre of death-doom isn’t known for its grunge influences, but that hasn’t stopped Temple of Void. The Detroit-based band weave subtle nods to Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, and even Smashing Pumpkins into their crushing and melancholy fourth album. “I don’t want people to ever really pick up on it,” guitarist Alex Awn tells Apple Music. “If they do, it means we were too heavy-handed or we didn’t make it Temple of Void enough. If we telegraph it like, ‘Here’s the grunge part,’ it’s a failure to me.”
Lyrically, vocalist Mike Erdody approached Summoning the Slayer from a more existential perspective than previous Temple of Void albums. “It’s essentially about looking at yourself in the mirror,” Awn explains. “We’ve got this Lovecraftian monster on the front cover, but the real horror is being face-to-face with yourself and your failures. You have to summon the courage to fight your internal demons.” Below, he details each song.
“Behind the Eye”
“This is a high-energy stomper to start the record. We’ve never had any riffs that have any space in them, so we wanted to include that as an element you didn’t see coming. Chuck Schuldiner from Death was an influence on the writing of this one—it’s kinda like Death by dummies. It has a note in it where I normally would’ve done a pinch harmonic, but I had been listening to ‘Them Bones’ by Alice In Chains, so I added that kind of feeling instead. That’s how we bring grunge into our records. It doesn’t sound like grunge, but the inspiration is there.”
“Deathtouch”
“If you don’t like this song, you probably won’t like Temple of Void. This is almost like a standard-bearer for what we do with death-doom. It’s a lengthy track, and it was definitely inspired by Paradise Lost. The very first death metal show I ever saw was Paradise Lost on the Icon tour with Sepultura, and that show has stuck with me to this day. The verse kind of has Type O Negative vibes, but when I play it, I imagine the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video. I see the cheerleaders and hear that drumbeat when we ring out that chord.”
“Engulfed”
“The working title for this was ‘4th of September,’ a reference to the Soundgarden song ‘4th of July.’ I just came up with those opening three chords—it’s very simple, but it has this really heavy Soundgarden vibe to it. It’s probably my favorite song to play when we do it in the practice room. It’s like a four- or five-chord song—nothing super complicated, but it’s the way it’s put together. Sometimes there’s magic in simplicity. But it’s a pretty bleak song. If you’re on an emotional journey, this is the low point.”
“A Sequence of Rot”
“There was a Smashing Pumpkins song that actually influenced the main riff—‘Bodies’ off of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. He’s just rolling on three notes or something to drive the song forward, and I just really dug that momentum. So, I wrote that riff with that in mind and slammed it together with a melancholy doom sort of lead over the chorus. And then there’s a part that was inspired by Quicksand. Of course, it doesn’t sound like Quicksand. If you listen carefully to the end of the song, you can hear some tambourines going on. I get a kick out of that.”
“Hex, Curse & Conjuration”
“[Guitarist] Don [Durr] and I wrote this one really quickly, and it’s the shortest song on the record. For me, it definitely has a Deicide influence—a real face-ripper. But the structure of the song is kind of a Rorschach mirror image thing—we play riffs 1, 2, and 3 and then 3, 2, 1. It’s like an aural palindrome. The outro was inspired a little bit by a Craft song called ‘I Want to Commit Murder,’ and then Don put this really nasty Morbid Angel-influenced lead at the end.”
“The Transcending Horror”
“This one has this real laidback riff I wrote that reminds me of 40 Watt Sun. When I brought it to the guys, I thought it was maybe kind of pushing it for us—and we had to work on it quite a bit. But sometimes when that happens, those songs end up being the best songs on the record. When I hear it, I imagine myself or the listener sitting in that boat getting ferried into the cave on the cover of our last record. And then we’re entering the cave on this record. It’s not terribly metal, but it might be my favorite song on the album.”
“Dissolution”
“We give Mike free reign to do whatever he wants for one song on every record because he’s the best guitarist in the band, but he doesn’t get to play guitar on most of our songs. So, he did acoustic pieces on our first three records, and he carried on with the acoustic thing here—but this one needed vocals. So, he wrote this really cool-sounding, very Nick Drake-oriented piece. I think he was inspired by some of Nick Drake’s open tunings. Of course, you could reference ‘Planet Caravan’ by Sabbath, but this definitely feels organic and vintage. It works really well in the flow of the album, too.”