By: Temple of Void

Date: March 6, 2026

Format used: digital

Rating: 3/5

With an ominous atmosphere and creeping dread, The Crawl is perhaps the most appropriate title for this album. With one small exception though. Another worthy title would have been The Climb, because ToV sure do like their Phrygian mode. And if there is one thing on this release that can be called formulaic, it’s this Phrygian ladder in the solos that keeps popping up.

Orcus the Vile himself is not a fan of the sound, When last such an oriental lick repeated this much in under the span of an hour, I was paraded around the court of a sultan as a freak from the armies of Christendom. And Orcus the Vile is not an animal – the snout and tusks are genetic!

Personal gripes aside, the atmosphere definitely has a good feel. As hinted to in the start of this review, there definitely is a feeling of dread permeating the album. Expect there to be heavy riffs and echoing snarls as on many previous Temple of Void releases. There is more emphasis on death metal this time around, and I think it is a stretch to describe this as a Doom album musically, Slowing down music and adding fuzz does not Doom Metal make, the same as if Orcus fries chicken dry over a fire he does not suddenly have beef jerky – no matter what his acolytes say (Orcus the Vile has a high brow, not a sloping brow)!

Returning to the music, there is a decently heavy wall of sound, which augments the dark lyrical subject matter. The lyrics are once again bleak, and come in two categories: fantasy like “the crawl” or “poison mountain”, and personal struggles like “godless cynic”. There is a good spread of themes and influences in the lyrics and music respectively, and the album, even if formulaic at times – competently does what it sets out to do. I would recommend the Crawl as a better album to get into than Summoning the Slayer, but Orcus the Vile encourages listening to their debut first.