The World That Was

With their third album, Detroit doom-death squad Temple of Void notches a rare achievement in closing the gap between extremity and accessibility. “Songwriting takes center stage with *The World That Was*,” vocalist and lyricist Mike Erdody tells Apple Music. “There’s an almost pop sensibility to the album, and the songs flow together as a cohesive listening journey. The songs have an added catchiness while still maintaining the heaviness listeners have come to expect from the band.” Meanwhile, Erdody meditates upon death and the hereafter on mythology-based songs like “Leave the Light Behind” and the acoustic instrumental “A Single Obolus” before taking a detour into the Warhammer gaming universe on the closing title track. Below, he guides us on a journey down the album’s own River Styx. **A Beast Among Us** “This was one of the last songs I wrote lyrics to on this album. I wanted at least one track that embraced the horror storytelling style of the previous albums. As the opener, it kind of works as almost an unofficial sequel to ‘Deceiver in the Shadows,’ which was the final track off *Lords of Death*. It describes a town banding together to find and kill an unknown creature that has been hunting and terrorizing them.” **Self-Schism** “Taking the lyrics at literal face value, it describes the act of digging your fingers into your scalp and slowly splitting your entire body in half from the skull downward, which I guess is a fairly death-metal concept. It’s also a commentary on the toxic nature of people-pleasing at the expense of your own time and happiness, and how certain types of people will use and exploit your generosity until you’re spread so thin that the only way to create more of yourself to go around is to start tearing yourself to pieces.” **A Single Obolus** “This song is an acoustic instrumental, but it serves as a dedication to a brilliant musician and close friend of our drummer, who sadly passed away a few years ago. In life we have an opportunity to touch and shape the lives of many people we encounter, and a huge element of death is the loss it creates for those around us who are still alive. When I was composing it, the parts all felt very natural and came together quickly. An obol or obolus was the currency used to pay Charon to transport souls across the Styx and Acheron into the land of the dead, which ties nicely into the next track.” **Leave the Light Behind** “On the exterior, ‘Leave the Light Behind’ is a first-person perspective of Charon as he laments the monotony of serving death as a livelihood. You get the sense of jaded apathy as he expresses that in the end, your quality of character doesn’t matter so long as you can pay the toll, and at this point he no longer casts judgment. It’s a simple financial transaction, and the journey is so automatic at this point he could navigate the rivers in total darkness if he had to. There are hints of humanity as he mentions being haunted by the souls who could not afford the toll—and while the darkness hides them, he still cannot hide from their cries and shrieks. Others who can afford the safe passage often deserve to reside under the water with the monsters below.” **Casket of Shame** “Sometimes life feels like it’s supposed to. Those puzzle pieces finally look like they connect, and you find yourself shifting priorities, setting goals, and thinking of the long term. No matter how well-thought your plan is, you’re never really prepared for the times when it all burns up in front of you. Sometimes it’s caused by your own recklessness and poor choices. Sometimes you unfortunately just happen to catch the wake of someone else’s poor decision, or sometimes you believe you make the right choice but end up implementing it in the completely wrong way. Resilience is the essence of a successful human being: having the ability to bounce back from tragedy/failure/heartbreak by being able to objectively look at yourself and correct the patterns that seem to continuously bring you back to the chaos.” **The World That Was** “This song takes place in the Warhammer universe and is a reflective piece told from the perspective of a fallen soldier as it sees its own slain body and watches as itself, the ongoing battle, and the entire world around it is lifted up and swallowed into an opening void. The lyrics make reference to some Warhammer mythos that really tries to harness the epic feel of the music. There’s a bit of an existential take on death by using the void to symbolize the uncertainty of the future and death as our ultimate equalizer. In part it could be interpreted as a social commentary on the futility of hatred and warmongering, but ‘The World That Was’ also signifies how many of us go through pivotal changes in our lives, often beyond our control, that force a chapter to close.”

Thanks to the following headbangers: Eric Blanchard (a true Templar), Ralf & Revel in Flesh, Markus & Sadistik Forest, Lasse & Hooded Menace, Anton, Chuck & Rotting Kingdom, Enrique & Crypt Sermon, Kari Kankaanpää & Solothus, Midnight, Mutilatred, Dutch and Taphos Nomos, Tomb Mold, Spirit Adrift, Ruinous, Trevor & the Black Dahlia Murder, Joe & Octopus, Mike & Warhorses, Demon Bitch, Fell Ruin, Isenblast, Centenary, Perversion, Cruthu, Tim & Shadow Kingdom Records, Eric & Unspeakable Axe Records, Albert & the crew at Decibel Magazine, Brad Wharton, Shane Merrill, Hasan, Will & Atlas Brewery, Steve Sommerville, Sam Fox, Dax in Toronto, Sam Lenz and the Warhammer / painting community, Clint Ford, Adam Burke, Tito Vespasiani, Iron City Gym in Waterford, Matt Hayes, the whole Pearce family, Amy Satterly, Pickle*, Marie & River Awn, Clyde Wilson & Vinny, Omar Jon Ajluni, Meredith Davidson, Adam Grignon, Don & Rima Horne, The Old Mill Crew (Dennis, Marv & Solo), James McCracken, Michael Woods, Jeff Pyles, Mike Itchue, The Lawry Family (Mark, Kari, Deven and Jorden), and most importantly... Jim Moore, Damian Juarez, Lawson Rains, Tracey Slayers, Keith Justus, Adam Mouyianis, Sophie Cox, Travis Taylor, Kalman Kovacs, Harrison Buchanan, Jeffrey Karrick, Josh Thacker, Kevin Ehbets, Todd Nabozny, Nick Dahm, Alex Saraceni, Robert Lyons, Jared Ginsberg, Andrew Thomas, Danny Protze, and all the other die-hard fans who continue to support us. Skol!

A review of The Word That Was by Temple of Void, available March 27th worldwide via Shadow Kingdom Records.