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HEAVY TEMPLE
Garden 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’t help but feel they’ve raided their local vintage store. But hey, the music on the band’s 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.

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, Soundgarden and the complete line-up from Desertfest! That’s not to say this is middle of the road stoner rock because the trio packs a hefty punch alongside those subtler flecks.

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

Garden Of Heathens is certainly a record of colours, although most are sun-bleached, resulting in some all too lethargic jams that don’t really go anywhere, but I guess this platter is an alternative option away from the satanically obsessed witch n’ wizard rock that keeps leaking out.

Neil Arnold

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