Heavy Temple – ‘Garden Of Heathens’

Heavy Psych Doom

Magnetic Eye Records

Reviewed by Smudge Smith

Philadelphia heavy doom trio Heavy Temple is back with a new bunch of songs that show a wider influence, but they still retain their heavy fuzzed-out core.

Easing in with the monstrously heavy grove of ‘Extreme Indifference To Life’ they immediately bring the heavy on a wall of distortion that settles over the laconic vocal of singer/bass player High Priestess Nighthawk ala Chris Goss of Masters Of Reality.

The groove picks up on ‘Hiraeth’ which is a steady simple rocker that rattles along nicely before ‘Divine Indiscretion’ goes off on a rolling psych riff and a steady groove with reverb-heavy vocals. ‘House Of Warship’ starts with a pained wailing chorus of voices before it trolls into a grinding stomp that leads to ‘Snake Oil And Other Remedies’ with its creepy atmospheric doom that goes through different movements during its eight-plus minutes.

‘In The Garden Of Heathens’ is an instrumental interlude with a low acoustic strum and a synth hum in the background which brings Pink Floyd to mind until Baron Lycan gives us a wristy drum intro on ‘Jesus Wept’ before some squally guitar lines open it up into a massive ballsy stoner rocker. ‘Psychomanteum’ allows guitarist Lord Paisley a brief fiddle on his fretboard then by crikey we go full-on thrash/speed rock where he shows his dexterity and his collection of riffs on another instrumental.

Another fine example of a psych/stoner. Lots of riffs and grooves in various movements and tempos. Is this any better than what’s out there already? I don’t know. Will you grab this before any others? Again, I don’t know. But if you do reach for it, I seriously doubt that you will be disappointed.

Track List –

1 – Extreme Indifference To Life

2 – Hiraeth

3 – Divine Indiscretion

4 – House Of Warship

5 – Snake Oil (And Other Remedies)

6 – In The Garden Of Heathens

7 – Jesus Wept

8 – Psychomanteum