Heavy Temple is a band that I’ve been hoping to see live for quite some time now, but have yet to do so. As well as really enjoying their prior releases (see Ave Noctum passim), vocalist High Priestess Nighthawk has one of the most kick-ass stage names in the world of rock and metal whilst also owning the sort of eye-catching bass that would have Bootsy Collins salivating in jealousy. As such, when the editor offered me their latest long player ‘Garden of Heathens’ to review, like this humble scribe, it was a no brainer.
Having first reminded myself of their prior works, ‘Lupi Amoris’ in particular being a belting combination of Iommi worship and Seventies hard rock, I put on the new offering to play, and for the first few chords of ‘Extreme Indifference To Life’ all seemed right. Then the vocals cut in and something seemed to go a little awry. The delivery just seemed a bit less forthright and powerful than before, with, dare I say it, the occasional hints of self-absorbed Indie ennui creeping in. Don’t get me wrong, the lyrics were still delivered cleanly with a whole pile of sustain, and it may be a reflection of the “indifference” of the title, but it just lacked some of the raw passion of prior work.
When ‘Hiraeth’ followed up, so did apparently the laissez-faire attitude, whilst the drums and guitar in particular seemed to have turned the dials on their amps away from Volume 4 more in an art rock direction. Knowing the penchant that Heavy Temple has had for some epic doom in the past, when my player displayed the seven minute plus ‘Divine Indiscretion’, I hoped they’d be settling into their dark groove of old, and indeed, there was some of the previously missing almost proto-metal punch to the track, and the addition of an extended instrumental break where guitarist Lord Paisley seemed to be trying for their very own communication breakdown did offer a distinct upturn in proceedings. The opening vocal harmonies of ‘House of Warship’ added a new occult layer to the album, but the good will it engendered in me was rather abraded by follow up ‘Snake Oil and Other Remedies’ which had every chance in its near nine-minute length, but instead the drums reminding me of something I didn’t really like, but couldn’t quite remember, whilst the guitars rather regularly jarred against my ears as opposed to grab my neck for a nod along. Indeed, on repeat plays something about the track sounded both familiar and very much not my thing, the mystery only being solved when I wandered into my local HMV with the track playing on my iPod whilst the shop PA was playing Muse, and the source of my ire clicked. If those alternative rock Devonshire conspiracy theorists are your thing, well, knock yourself out, they’re just not for me.
Fortunately things got back on course for me with title track ‘Garden of Heathens’ lyric free, acoustic, and threaded through with the menace and melancholy of dark Americana, whilst ‘Jesus Wept’ added something of the psychedelic to the mix, before closing out with ‘Psychomanteum’ which starts out in the realms of Velvet Underground experimental noise before metamorphising into a head banging, fist pumping slice of NWOBHM pummelling.
In the accompanying PR that came with the album, Heavy Temple admitted to experimenting with a wider range of styles and influences, and for that I can only give them credit. However, to me it led to an album that was sometimes a bit unsure in its direction, and whilst filled with some fantastic music, also had a few misses that brought down the overall quality to me. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Garden of Heathen’ is an album well worth buying, and I still hope to catch Heavy Temple live, I’d just hope they would be careful in picking their set list to avoid some of the numbers on this album that I found less than to my taste.
(7/10 Spenny)
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