Interviewed: Alex Awn

Today I got the honor to interview a band that’s grown on me with the years. Temple of Void is like a fine red wine that with age just gets better. Their upcoming album The World that Was is one of my most anticipated albums and I expected nothing else than superb craftsmanship in the death/doom school which Temple of Void resides in. Me and Alex Awn discuss the bands start and future, Lovecraft, role playing games and of course their new album.

How did Temple of Void start?



TOV started in 2013. I met Eric Blanchard when my other band would do our weekly Krav Maga sessions. He seemed cool and I invited him over to lift in my basement gym. He had a band, I had a band, but we had mutual respect for one another as guitarists and knew that when the time was right we’d start something. That time eventually came. We recruited my old friend Brent on bass. Eric found Jason on drums. And Eric found Mike on vocals. It was a pretty unlikely assortment of dudes, but we gelled instantly. Mike had never sang before but he honestly might have the best pipes in all of fucking death metal!

You’d only had one line-up change since the start in 2013, which is very rare. What’s the secret?



Mutual respect. Honesty. And the ability to tackle any issues head-on. There are bound to be ups and downs, but we don’t have time for bullshit in our lives. Things need to be addressed and course-corrected as soon as possible. We’re all friends. We do this b/c we love it. That’s literally the only reason TOV exists. Cuz we love creating music together.

How is the process when creating music in Temple of Void? Does everyone has a say as a collective, is one of you guys more the leader who has a final say or how does it happen when a album comes to light?



Don and I write all the riffs. But everyone contributes to nurturing those riffs and bringing the songs to life. No one has ever brought a song to practice fully-baked. Don and I just bring ingredients and ideas. Everyone else comes together to shape the songs. And sometimes it takes months to get it right. But something that differentiates us is how meticulous we are about song-craft. Also, sometimes one person might feel strongly about a part or a song and push it… but I think we trust each other enough to know that when someone’s pushing something maybe they’re just onto some cool shit and it’ll take us a minute to catch up and see it through their lens. Collectively we trust that our combined tastes will bring about something that’s truly special and truly TOV every time. We don’t put out anything that doesn’t meet our high standards. We’re fans of the band. We don’t want to let ourselves down.

Temple of Void is rather influenced by Lovecraft. I’ve seen you add pictures of playing the role playing game Call of Cthulhu. What’s your “relationship” with the work of Lovecraft?



I started playing CoC recently w/ Eric, actually. We also have a monthly D&D game. He’s no longer in TOV but I see him just as much as the other guys. We game and paint every weekend. Brent, Mike, and I are all super into Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos.

Your new album The World that Was is coming out on March 27th, what can fans expect of the album?



We haven’t rewritten any of our albums. LOD wasn’t OTATS Part II, and TWTW isn’t LOD Part II. They’re all unique statements w/ a common thread. The new one has some crushing death passages that are just as heavy as LOD. And it has some doom-y parts just as cavernous and enveloping as anything on OTATS. I think TWTW sits somewhere in between the prior two albums as far as the death-to-doom ratio goes. We recorded w/ the same dude. So you’ve got a familiar sound. But we keep dialing in better tones with each album. The biggest change and improvement is the more immersive use of synth and sound design. We’ve had synth on the prior two albums here and there, but we made sure to use it very purposefully on every song on this album and it’s really brought a whole other immersive dimension to the recording. The people we collaborated with (Meredith and Omar) did phenomenal jobs. Interestingly enough, it ends on a somewhat uplifting moment, for an album as dark as this. It’s a really cool journey from song to song. It’s by far our most complete work in every regard.

You’re back working with Shadow Kingdom Records again for this record. How did you two come together and are you going to continue collaborating after The World that Was is out?



This is our final record in the current contract w/ SKR. No idea what the future holds as right now we’re just focusing on getting this out and supporting it. Tim’s done a great job w/ PR on this one and we’re very happy with the final product. And we’re not honestly sure how he came upon us in 2013 to be honest. It’s a bit of a mystery.

After two critically acclaimed albums on your belt does that add pressure on your third release or do you work the same way as you always have?

There’s pressure, but there will always be pressure. We felt it after OTATS. And we felt it after LOD. We’ll feel it again after TWTW when we write album four. But it doesn’t change how we write or what we write. We trust in ourselves and we trust in our fans. We’ve always done what we’ve wanted, we always will, and that seems to appeal to people. And that’s real cool. Couldn’t ask for more.

What’s next for Temple of Void?



Need to get out there and support this record a bit. Got a couple big fests lined up that we’re pretty excited about. And we just signed up w/ Continental Touring to help us with booking shows. They have a great roster w/ a lot of death metal so we feel like we’re in good hands. We’re excited to see what comes of it.

If you got asked to play a Temple of the Void song for someone that’s never heard of you before, which song would that be and why?



I’d play them A Watery Internment from LOD. It’s got the classic old school death metal riffing up front. Stuff to bang your head to. And then it breaks it down in the middle to this real mellow sort of Alice in Chains haunting part that’s pretty meditative, and then comes crashing in w/ this super oppressive tremolo picking part with monstrous drums. It just crushes you. So it’s like if you don’t like death metal with eerie hooks and pounding doom rhythms then you won’t like TOV. That song has a bit of everything.

Or if you want a song off the new album I’d venture to suggest Casket of Shame. For pretty much all the same reasons as above.

Seeing as I’ve seen you guys do role playing I got to ask, do you play video games too? If so what’s the best game of all time?



I haven’t owned a games system since the SNES. I don’t think anyone in the band plays much, tbh. Certainly nothing current. I’d say Zelda, though. Best game ever.

To end it I would like to know which album would you say got you into extreme metal?



Hmmmmm. I can’t pinpoint it to the “first album.” I remember seeing the “Can I Play With Madness” video on TV as an 8 year old and being into it. But it was a while before I was a real metalhead so to speak. “Fear of the Dark” was a huge album for me in 1992. The extremity probably first arrived in 1993 in the shape of Sepultura’s “Chaos AD” and Paradise Lost’s “Icon.” Those were both hugely influential. Life of Agony’s “River Runs Red” was 1993. Carcass’s “Heartwork”. Cannibal Corpse’s “Hammer Smashed Face” single/EP. Danzig 4P. Yeah. 1993 was a big year. But maybe it was 1992 with Helmet’s “Meantime.” Depends how “extreme” you want to get, I guess.

Thanks a lot for your time, got any shoutouts?



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