The New Temple of Dagon EP Slays Like A Bastard

During a round-up of promos and recently-released records today, I stumbled across the upcoming EP by crusty Hollywood death metal crew Temple of Dagon, titled Revelations of the Spirit. A sucker for most things Lovecraftian with nasty black-and-white covers, I figured I’d give it a spin.

And holy shit, does this EP rule. Temple of Dagon has found a perfect sweet spot between classic death metal, thrash, grindcore, and crust, and it hits home incredible hard. The riffs feel just arch and occult enough to break the songs out of the usual straightforward OSDM mold, but they still chug along without trying too hard to get weird and Schuldinerian. The vocals also have a creepy quality to them, croaked as much as bellowed in a way that smacks of Lovecraft’s old Deep Ones; they remind me of a less guttural Book of Black Earth (also a Lovecraft reference!).

This kind of music is done so haphazardly that finding a band excelling at it is a rare treat. I can’t stop listening to this EP. The four songs on it are just too entertaining. It does exactly what a four-song disc should do — makes me excited to go back and check out their previous work. I’m sold on this band. These fucking riffs, man.

Revelations of the Spirit comes out on June 9 on Black Voodoo, but you can stream it at Cvlt Nation now. The band’s heading out on tour this Saturday, so catch them at one of the dates below. From the sounds of this EP, they’re going to bring the fucking house down.

6/06/2015 East 7th Punx Warehouse – Los Angeles, CA
6/14/2015 House Show – Oakland, CA
6/15/2015 Blackwater Bar – Portland, OR
6/16/2015 The Mix – Seattle, WA
6/18/2015 Club Scum – Denver, CO
6/19/2015 Hexagon Bar – Minneapolis, MN
6/20/2015 TBA – Madison, WI
6/21/2015 Mousetrap – Chicago, IL
6/23/2015 Spitfire – New Orleans, LA
6/25/2015 The Lost Well – Austin, TX
6/26/2015 TBA – Phoenix, AZ
6/27/2015 The Music Hall @ Cruststock 2015 – Anaheim, CA