Back to Temple of Dread.
Founded in 2017 in Germany, the band regularly offers us albums rooted in Old School Death Metal. In 2024, Markus Bünnemeyer (guitar/bass, Thrashhammer), Jörg Uken (drums, Adversvm, ex-Nightfall…) and Jens Finger (vocals, Slaughterday, ex-Obscenity) unveil God of the Godless, the fifth of the name, on Testimony Records.
Carnage Ritual kicks things off, wasting no time in letting the trio unleash their rage with a solid, jerky rhythm section, over which the vocal parts develop with ease. The guitar allows itself a few scathing interventions before Spawn of Filth offers us a more martial, rhythmic tone, letting the accelerations guide the track towards sometimes darker tones, just like on Black Scream, which starts with ominous harmonics. The fury returns with a vengeance, sometimes dipping into Thrash to tint the guitars with bloody tones, before Sacrificial Dawn returns to a heavier, even groovy register. Markus can again be counted on to create dissonant spikes here and there, contrasting the catchy approach, but the atmosphere changes again with God Of The Godless, which unveils more ethereal sounds. The trio then indulge in pure violence, but also a few more technical parts to carry us through to Prophetic Misanthropy, where Old School influences come to the fore again in the thickest, most aggressive moments, complemented by rocky vocal parts. Monstrosity Divine returns to the unhealthy groove, initially offering us a rather distressing atmosphere, but it’s once again in violence that the musicians express themselves, as with Terminal Putrefaction, which starts off more energetically and offers us bursts of savagery throughout the track. The solo reveals heavy influences that easily match the rage, but which will eventually give way to darker notes on the opening moments of Demise Of Olympus, the last composition where the band doesn’t hold back in combining all the previous elements, harmoniously linking them thanks to the length of the track.
Temple of Dread’s name is now considered a sure bet on the underground Death Metal scene. The band continues to deliver quality tracks, and God of the Godless can only add to their notoriety!
90/100
