‘Where’s that Temple of Lies review?’ Barked the great owner-operator through the e-mail ether. Fact is, I was hoping he’d forgotten all about the fact that I’d agreed to review From Sand, as I’ve been sitting on the record for over a month trying to come up with something nice to say about it.
I’ve failed miserably.
This is because English rockers Temple of Lies, with this their second release, have come up with a release so ordinary I literally can’t think of anything to say about it that’ll sway you one way or another should you have been thinking of making a purchase and were looking to me for guidance.
In my life I’ve made it my business to try and stay away from the mundane, and I only took this on because it was recommended to me as a ‘mix of Metallica and Clutch’. Well, vocalist Si Shaw occasionally has a whiff of latterday Hetfield about him – a faint one –and some of the second hand stoner metal riffs might well be rejected by Tim Sult if he were presented with them and asked to give them a whirl – but that’s as far as the comparison goes, I’m afraid. This is as mundane as it gets.
This is a shame, because I’ve heard good reports about this band as a live attraction, and, looking for positives, Crystal is a bit more jagged, a bit more insistent and might make the grade in the live arena for that reason; most of the songs come in at under four minutes meaning that there is an overall sense of urgency to the material offered up that again suggests a band who may be worth seeing live as opposed to sitting and listening to in your own domicile.
It’s never nice writing what amounts to a slating; But really we’ve all got better things to do than waste time listening to records that never rise above the ‘ordinary’ tag, haven’t we? Best avoided, but deffo go and see them live if you get the chance I’d say.
Temple of Lies is out now on Attic Records
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