Artist: Temple of Dread
Album: Dreadspawn Dominion
Genre: Old-School Death Metal / Death Metal
Release: 7 August 2026
Label: Testimony Records
Tracks: 10
Running Time: 40:16
๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ 5/5 Guitars
Some albums gently invite you inside.
Dreadspawn Dominion arrives aboard a bloody great battle trireme, smashes through the front door and starts demanding souls.
Subtle, it ainโt. ๐๐ฅ
German death-metal bruisers Temple of Dread have spent the best part of a decade developing a particularly nasty strain of old-school death metal: riffs built like siege weapons, snarling vocals, thrash-infused aggression and enough darkness to make turning the lights on feel like a reasonable health-and-safety precaution.
But Dreadspawn Dominion isnโt simply forty minutes of the band repeating what theyโve already done.
The foundations remain unmistakably old-school.
Yet thereโs an increasingly cinematic quality surrounding these songs, with Temple of Dread leaning further into atmosphere, melody and classical imagery without sacrificing the fundamental requirement of any proper death-metal record:
It needs to sound absolutely bloody lethal.
Mission accomplished.
Grab the sword.
Weโre going in. โ๏ธ๐
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Track Listing
- Wings of Immortality (Intro)
- Dreadspawn Dominion
- Born to Rot
- Hybrid Horde Eternal
- Death March
- Blood Pyre
- Scorched by Cosmic Fire
- Rites of Blasphemy
- Artisan of Oblivion
- Infernal Eternity
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Track-by-Track Review
1. Wings of Immortality (Intro)
At just over a minute, Wings of Immortality establishes the battlefield.
Thereโs atmosphere.
Tension.
The sense that something enormous is approaching over the horizon.
Itโs essentially Temple of Dread standing outside your house sharpening the axe before the actual carnage begins.
Lovely.
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2. Dreadspawn Dominion
๐ HERE WE BLOODY GO.
The title track wastes absolutely no time.
Old-school death-metal riffs immediately come crashing through the speakers while the drums push everything forward with military precision.
Thereโs a definite thrash-metal bite underneath the death-metal brutality, giving the track serious momentum rather than simply relying on sheer heaviness.
Three-and-a-half minutes.
Straight for the throat.
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3. Born to Rot
With a title like Born to Rot, we probably arenโt heading towards uplifting acoustic territory.
Temple of Dread slow things down just enough to make every riff feel heavier.
Thereโs groove underneath the filth, giving the track that wonderful old-school death-metal ability to make you headbang before youโve consciously realised youโre doing it.
Filthy.
Groovy.
Rotten.
Exactly as advertised.
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4. Hybrid Horde Eternal
This one absolutely flies.
Hybrid Horde Eternal demonstrates Temple of Dreadโs ability to pull thrash-metal velocity into their death-metal attack.
The guitars become increasingly frantic while the rhythm section sounds like itโs attempting to outrun an approaching apocalypse.
Thereโs technical precision here.
But crucially, it never becomes sterile.
This still sounds dangerous.
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5. Death March
Now THAT is a title.
And appropriately, Death March feels enormous.
Rather than simply blasting forward, Temple of Dread allow the riffs to stomp.
Thereโs something militaristic about the rhythm.
Heavy.
Deliberate.
Relentless.
Imagine an undead army slowly appearing over the horizon.
Thatโs basically this song.
Except with considerably better guitars.
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6. Blood Pyre
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Well, nobody can accuse Temple of Dread of naming songs like an indie band.
Blood Pyre brings another burst of controlled violence, combining sharp riffing with darker atmospheric touches.
Thereโs a genuine sense of menace running throughout.
And when the guitars lock into the groove?
Neck muscles are officially endangered.
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7. Scorched by Cosmic Fire
One of the recordโs biggest moments.
At nearly five minutes, Scorched by Cosmic Fire has enough room to stretch beyond straightforward old-school brutality.
Thereโs atmosphere.
Thereโs scale.
Thereโs almost something cinematic developing around the riffs.
But donโt mistake ambition for softness.
When Temple of Dread decide to attack again, the guitars hit like an extinction event.
Absolutely monstrous.
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8. Rites of Blasphemy
Three minutes.
Thatโs all Temple of Dread need.
Rites of Blasphemy is the musical equivalent of being chased down an alleyway by something carrying an axe.
Fast.
Violent.
Direct.
Thereโs no unnecessary wandering around looking for the exit.
The band arrive, flatten everything and disappear again.
Proper job.
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9. Artisan of Oblivion
What a bloody title.
Artisan of Oblivion feels like the album beginning its final descent.
The songwriting becomes increasingly expansive while the guitars continue throwing out riffs capable of causing involuntary head movement.
Thereโs melody underneath the brutality too, demonstrating how much Temple of Dreadโs songwriting has developed.
Death metal doesnโt need to sacrifice atmosphere to remain vicious.
This proves it.
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10. Infernal Eternity
Nearly six minutes.
Final track.
Time to empty the ammunition.
Infernal Eternity feels suitably enormous.
Everything that has defined Dreadspawn Dominion appears here.
Old-school brutality.
Thrash-infused riffing.
Cinematic darkness.
Groove.
Atmosphere.
And enough guitar violence to require structural inspection afterwards.
Temple of Dread donโt simply stop the record.
They finish the campaign.
When the final note disappears, the battlefield is empty.
Job done.
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The Breakdown
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Vocals โ ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ
Absolutely rotten.
Exactly what we want.
The vocals carry enough venom to complement the guitars without becoming buried underneath them.
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Guitars โ ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ
The star of the show.
Temple of Dread understand that old-school death metal lives or dies by the riff.
Thankfully, Dreadspawn Dominion has bloody loads of them.
Fast riffs.
Slow riffs.
Grooves.
Thrashy attacks.
Melodic leads.
Take your pick.
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Drums โ ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ
Relentless without becoming monotonous.
The tempo shifts are particularly important, giving the heavier passages considerably more impact.
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Atmosphere โ ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ
The classical themes and increasingly cinematic approach give Dreadspawn Dominion a personality beyond straightforward death-metal brutality.
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Songwriting โ ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ
Forty minutes is almost perfect.
Long enough to build a world.
Short enough that nothing overstays its welcome.
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Standout Tracks
โ๏ธ Dreadspawn Dominion
๐ Born to Rot
๐ฅ Scorched by Cosmic Fire
๐ฉธ Rites of Blasphemy
๐น Infernal Eternity
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Ancient Warfare Meets Old-School Death Metal
One of Temple of Dreadโs most interesting characteristics remains their fascination with classical antiquity.
Ancient warfare.
Mythology.
Death.
Violence.
Empires.
Humanity doing horrible things to humanity.
Basically death-metal lyricists could probably live off ancient history forever.
But the classical themes do more than provide cool song titles.
They reinforce the scale of the music.
Dreadspawn Dominion frequently feels like a soundtrack to armies marching, cities burning and civilisations collapsing.
Cheerful stuff for a Friday afternoon, innit? ๐
Yet that imagery fits the music perfectly.
Temple of Dreadโs increasingly cinematic approach makes the record feel larger without sacrificing the primitive aggression that old-school death metal requires.
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The Riff Report Verdict
There is absolutely nothing wrong with knowing what kind of band you are.
Temple of Dread know.
Theyโre a death-metal band.
Theyโre not suddenly adding trap beats because somebody told them TikTok likes those.
Theyโre not abandoning distortion for a conceptual synth-pop record.
Theyโre here to play riffs.
Big, horrible, neck-destroying riffs.
And Dreadspawn Dominion delivers them relentlessly.
But underneath that traditional foundation is a band becoming increasingly ambitious.
The cinematic elements are stronger.
The songwriting has more room to breathe.
Melody appears without weakening the aggression.
And the classical themes give the whole record a distinctive identity.
Thatโs exactly how old-school metal survives.
Not by pretending the last thirty years never happened.
Not by completely reinventing itself.
By taking the things that made it brilliant in the first place and finding new ways to make them exciting.
Temple of Dread have done precisely that.
Dreadspawn Dominion sounds ancient and modern.
Primitive and calculated.
Groovy and vicious.
Basically everything you want from forty minutes of death metal.
THE RIFF REPORT RATING
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5/5 GUITARS
Ten tracks. Forty minutes. Absolutely no mercy.
Temple of Dread have unleashed a battle-ready slab of old-school death metal packed with monstrous riffs, cinematic darkness and enough aggression to flatten a Roman legion.
The dominion has begun. ๐โ๏ธ๐ฅ๐ค
