Back in 2017 I reviewed a demo from a little Detroit band making their own doomy racket somewhere between Cathedral and Bolt Thrower, and predicted much greatness from the band. Well, having heard and loved (if not reviewed) their two full-lengths since, the arrival of a third was a chance too good to miss, and accordingly The World That Was is even better than expected. The Temple of Void sound is muscular doom/death that practically demands headbanging with plenty of deep-toned riffing and deathly growls as you'd expect, but the band have a subtle experimental flair that raises its head from time to time and ensures they operate in a field of their own. There's always something of a psychedelic touch to their sound, particularly notable here on opener A Beast Among Us, where the woozy riffing and trippy synthesizers ebb and swell together to the point where they form one huge ominous wall of noise.

Temple of Void are excellent at dynamics, however, throwing plenty of strange melody between the slab-like riff sections; the latter open Self-Schism with a burst of fetid energy, before slowing things into a desperate crawl through the mire, closing with a frenzied last struggle as the sludge overwhelms. After that, it says much for the band's skills in songwriting and creating atmosphere that classical guitar interlude A Single Obolus fits in perfectly. Not least because of it how gives the listener a breather before the gothic post-metal of Leave the Light Behind, which sounds like a zombified Paradise Lost complete with ghostly clean singing; still obviously doom-death, but the work of a band very willing to experiment and talented enough to make it work.

Nearly every track ending with a little space rock burst of synthesizers is a nice touch too, acting as mini-interludes, especially useful here before the rocking doom that opens Casket of Shame roars into life. That track indulges itself most in the heavy metal sense, with an almost thrashy central section, but the best of a solid bunch of songs all in all is the closing title track. A nine-minute monster that opens with a gripping funeral doom melody better than most of this year's My Dying Bride album, it kicks into a higher gear around the four minute mark as the death metal elements seize control. A little bass-led section builds to a more melodic doom style before an epic ending, packing more into nine minutes than many doom bands do with double that. And all this on an album under forty minutes long, too! An excellent third outing for Temple of Void.