{"id":103028,"date":"2024-04-12T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T23:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=103028"},"modified":"2024-04-25T13:16:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T12:16:22","slug":"album-review-heavy-temple-garden-of-heathens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-heavy-temple-garden-of-heathens\/","title":{"rendered":"HEAVY TEMPLE – Garden Of Heathens (2024) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

HEAVY TEMPLE
Garden Of Heathens<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMagnetic Eye (2024)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I do sometimes struggle with bands who so desperately want to look and sound as if they have been plucked from the psychedelic haze of the late 60s and early 70s. In the case of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based hippy trio Heavy Temple I can\u2019t help but feel they\u2019ve raided their local vintage store. But hey, the music on the band\u2019s second full-length studio album is good enough, being a rather charming cocktail of wistful psyche with shades of doom alongside a sort of stoned, yet sandy heavy rock post grunge.<\/p>\n

Vocalist High Priestess Nighthawk (really?) coats the grooves with a power and charisma as the band fluidly wafts between a myriad of influences ranging from Jefferson Airplane, early Judas Priest, Fu Manchu, Jimi Hendrix, Queens Of The Stone Age, Black Sabbath<\/a>, Soundgarden and the complete line-up from Desertfest! That\u2019s not to say this is middle of the road stoner rock because the trio packs a hefty punch alongside those subtler flecks.<\/p>\n

Vocally, there is a Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) and Layne Stayley (Alice In Chains) vibe, particularly on the lumbering \u2018Extreme Indifference To Life\u2019, although much of the vocal display exists within the rather tried and tested haunting occult driven rock formula. Meanwhile, \u2018Hiraeth\u2019 boasts a fuzzy riff, as does the slower, moodier \u2018House Of Warship\u2019, but the sound remains deftly cased in a doomy shroud while keeping the sun shining. \u2018Jesus Wept\u2019 is another strong track boasting a nice galloping mid-section to escape the doomy doldrums. \u2018In The Garden Of Heathens\u2019 has more in common with The Beatles style of sitar-edged psychedelia, while \u2018Snake Oil (And Other Remedies)\u2019 sounds like The Cult fused with a 90s British psychedelia.<\/p>\n

Garden Of Heathens<\/em> is certainly a record of colours, although most are sun-bleached, resulting in some all too lethargic jams that don\u2019t really go anywhere, but I guess this platter is an alternative option away from the satanically obsessed witch n\u2019 wizard rock that keeps leaking out.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HEAVY TEMPLEGarden Of Heathens Magnetic Eye (2024)Rating: 7\/10 I do sometimes struggle with bands who so desperately want to look and sound as if they have been plucked from the psychedelic haze of the late 60s and early 70s. In the case of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based hippy trio Heavy Temple I can\u2019t help but feel they\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-heavy-temple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103029,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103028\/revisions\/103029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}