{"id":105548,"date":"2025-10-03T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T23:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105548"},"modified":"2025-10-09T14:29:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:29:17","slug":"album-review-tempered-cruel-and-unusual-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-tempered-cruel-and-unusual-punishment\/","title":{"rendered":"TEMPERED – Cruel & Unusual Punishment (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEMPERED
\nCruel & Unusual Punishment<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nCavernous \/ Macho (2025)<\/span>
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Right, I\u2019m going to address the elephant in the room immediately; I don\u2019t like the vocals. There, I said it, so if the Glasgow, Scotland-based band wants to send their parents, grandparents, neighbours and their dogs down to Metal Forces<\/em> HQ then so be it.<\/p>\n

Cruel & Unusual Punishment<\/em> is a ferocious modern thrash album. It\u2019s one which vents anger from the very first riff and while I am in full appreciation of its volatile nature I just can\u2019t get on with it, finding myself constantly irritated by what seem to be childish vocal outbursts. I do believe, however, that Tempered will appeal to a lot of thrash maniacs because it\u2019s relentless in its aggression, and a lot of thrash heads will relate to such seething.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mass Misery\u2019 leaps for your throat like a rabid dog, ripping at your flesh with its crazed riffage. To an extent, the initial vocal barrage is acceptable; it provides a lethal injection to what is already a wild and ravenous song. For Tempered it\u2019s all about the speed, but within these zipping tirades there are some catchy melodies to be unearthed.<\/p>\n

\u2018Fed To Dogs\u2019 features some slower riffage to hook you in and there\u2019s some angular construction inside the pummelling. So, riff wise it\u2019s quite the sonic experience, more so on the very good \u2018Scum Vortex\u2019, but as the album unravelled I somehow managed to separate the vocals which allowed me to appreciate the quality of the musicianship more.<\/p>\n

\u2018Crush Zone\u2019 features some Slayer<\/a>-esque lead work and an utterly violent approach, especially with the blazing drums. \u2018Cold Hard Ground\u2019 is a big favourite, more so due to its mid-tempo groove, but so much of what\u2019s offered is hostile, rounded off with further venomous spits on closer \u2018Cruel Punishment\u2019.<\/p>\n

As I write this critique I\u2019m on my 11th spin of this debut album and I still can\u2019t stomach the vocals, but don\u2019t let this review put you off, especially if you like antagonistic thrash which showers you with an in-your-face crossover whipping.<\/p>\n

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

TEMPERED Cruel & Unusual Punishment Cavernous \/ Macho (2025) Rating: 7\/10 Right, I\u2019m going to address the elephant in the room immediately; I don\u2019t like the vocals. There, I said it, so if the Glasgow, Scotland-based band wants to send their parents, grandparents, neighbours and their dogs down to Metal Forces HQ then so be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5983],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-tempered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105548","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=105548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105550,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105548\/revisions\/105550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}