Three albums in three successive years, the momentum in the Temple Of Dread camp shows no signs of abating as does the creative energy on this third full length. Why change an already successful template when it delivers such top-quality death metal I say. I have covered both of this bands previous two albums with the last album getting near perfect score on our exalted website and this latest offering is going to come close as they continue to steamroller the death metal genre with their old school approach. I’ll be honest fans of the band will be hard pressed to choose to between all three of the releases as each has something going for it but there is something a tad darker about this one, a bit more sinister maybe within the riffing or maybe that was just my mood when listening to it.

One thing is for sure about ‘Hades Unleashed’ it is monstrously heavy, has brutalising catchiness and inherent power running end to end as it opens with ‘Althon’s Hunger’. There is a continuation from where ‘World Sacrifice’ left off in some respect, that seemingly unerring sense of obliterating annihilation this band has as the opener sets about carving deep gashes of riffing cruelty into the song all the while the rhythm section lets loose its low-end seismic rumble. This album is packed with groove and whilst the songs are some of the fastest the band has penned in places everything has its place as ‘Necromanteion’ follows with its slower grinding madness.

Powering in is ‘Wrath Of The Gods (Furor Divinus)’, its old school approach will have fans of retro death metal drooling with glee as the riff changes abound with double bass cascades that rain down with bone crunching delight. I especially enjoyed the shorter ‘Empyrean’ its impactive blasted stabbing assault cracks open skulls right before the plummeting drop in pace allows a superb catchy riff change, this track is just a joy to listen to. The quality continues into ‘Crypts Of The Gorgon’ where that groove infestation shows no let up, as here the blast beat rears up showcasing their turn of speed, but it is the riff changes that really claw you in. Slowing the tempo down allowing a double kick roll to melt the track down adding drama and composure creating a portentous atmosphere before the blasted finish, a cracking track indeed.

Penetrating, guttural and grisly ‘Whores Of Pompeii’ blasts into life offering that turn of speed the band so adeptly does and with clinical savagery before reeling it in for their trademark switches in riff and tempo to keep you on your toes. Closing this immense album is the slightly longer ‘Procession To Tartarus’, the band has always done this on their albums, ended with a longer more protracted tune, slightly more thoughtful with a build-up process, moody more atmospheric as here the song takes on a doom-death styling that hints at an Obituary influence that I suggested in my review of their last album which also is relevant still here but less so. The closer is pernicious, cloying, creeping into every cell of your body with its persistently slower yet colossally dense riffing and drum work.

Temple Of Dread continue to make waves in the death metal genre and if you have not picked up on them yet then you really should, as their third album is as good as it gets in the world of deathliness, pick any of their albums and you will not be disappointed but get this and you’ll get the best of the bunch so far. Superb album and creeping closer to that near perfect 10.

(9.5/10 Martin Harris)

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https://testimonyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/temple-of-dread-hades-unleashed