Reading the blurb accompanying Heavy Temple's latest release Desert Psychlist was somewhat shocked to find that it was only 2012 that Heavy Temple came into existence, we say shocked because it seems like they have been around making music for just about forever. Admittedly the band have gone through a few line up changes in their time together and have been a little less than prolific on the album front but it does, partly thanks to their constant touring, feel like they have been around this whole doom/stoner/psych scene a lot longer than they actually have. The band recently finished and have now released their second full length album "Garden Of Heathens" (Magnetic Eye Records), with the ever present High Priestess Nighthawk on bass and vocals, Baron Lycan on drums and Lord Paisley on guitar (Paisley has since left the band), its essential listening!
Things kick off with the sociopathic anthem "Extreme Indifference to Life", a seriously impressive track boasting basement deep bass, grainy circular guitar motifs and thundering punchy drumming but as good as all those things are the real sucker punch comes in the shape of High Priestess Nighthawk's vocals, her voice possessing in its low register a deep rich timbre and in its upper register boasts an air of dark bluesiness, we are blessed with some truly great vocalists in this thing we call "the underground" and this vocal is up there with the best of them. Things get nicely gnarly for next song "Hiraeth", with Paisley laying down some heavily fuzzed six-string crunchiness ably supported by busy solid drumming and bouncy growling bass from Lycan and Nighthawk the song, a mixture of proto-doomic gallop and hard rock furiosity, also features some incendiary lead work as well as another top class vocal performance. "Divine Indiscretion" is up next, Nighthawk delivering a powerful, slightly gothic tinted vocal telling us she's "a monster on the inside" over a groove that begins life in hard rock territory and accelerates to an almost speed metal tempo in its final quarter. The excellently titled "House of Warship" follows and begins with wordless wailing before erupting into what is probably the albums most traditionally doomic groove so far, well that is if you can call this onslaught of twisted guitar tones, abstract bass lines and full on manic drumming "traditional", the song also marks Nighthawks finest vocal performance of the entire album. We stay in doomic territory for "Snake Oil (and Other Remedies)" but this time a more desert rock take on doom, heavy on fuzz but lighter on atmospherics while instrumental title track "Garden of Heathens" ramps up the atmospherics and twins them with acoustic guitars and cello (supplied by guest John Forrestal). Up until this point things have been REALLY GOOD but GOOD soon makes way for GREAT with next track "Jesus Wept" the track boasting dissonant guitar textures squawking and squealing over Bonham-esque drum patterns anchored by grizzled bass and elevated by Nighthawk's powerful and intentionally off kilter vocal melodies, the song wandering into the realms of free form improvisation in places. Heavy Temple sign off their second full length album with "Psychomanteum" a title that could easily be shortened to just "psycho" as this instrumental comes at you like Norman Bates in a shower, slashing at you with its razer sharp lead work, pinning you with its weighty bass lines and bludgeoning you with its furious drumming, if there is a better closing track on an album released this year then Desert Psychlist has yet to hear it.
It's still kind of hard to believe that "Garden of Heathens" is only Heavy Temple's second full length album, especially given how long they have been around, but the best things are always worth waiting for and Heavy Temple have with their new album delivered one of the best things you'll hear this year.
Check it out ...
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