Heavy Temple – Garden of Heathens
April 12th, 2024
Doom / Stoner Metal
Magnetic Eye Records
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
I initially was made aware of Heavy Temple when the band Morgul Blade, one of my favourite newer metal acts of the past decade, posted about this band recently on their social media. Heavy Temple shares members with Morgul Blade, namely vocalist and bassist High Priestess Nighthawk, as well as drummer Baron Lycan, formerly also of Crypt Sermon, one of my favourite doom bands in recent memory. Heavy Temple has been around for a minute, and this new record of theirs is not their first foray into psychedelia, but it is my first exposure to them.
Upon my first spin of Garden of Heathens I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I didn’t even know what subgenre of metal this was going to be. I just knew that the members were in other quality bands and that the album art looked sick as hell, so I was intrigued from the get-go. Once the album actually started playing I was treated to sounds that threw me for a loop. This is doom metal, easily, but it’s also not necessarily the cookie cutter Sabbathian doom that one might anticipate. There’s some off-kilterness to this whole package, which comes through particularly in the unsettling guitar riffs and melodies that throw one for a loop.
Nighthawk’s vocals are beyond question. She is undoubtedly a talented vocalist who belts out melodies that take influence from all over the rock and roll spectrum. Inspired as much by the Sabbathian vocals of old as much as the desert rock legends Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, Nighthawk is focused on one thing and one thing only: deliver these lyrics through catchy melodies that keep the listener guessing as to which note is going to come next. Much like the guitar work, there are some delightful twists and turns in the vocal melodies that threw me off a few times during my initial listen as much as the subsequent.
Speaking of guitars, while Nighthawk handles the bass performance on this album she is joined by Christian Lopez on the guitar. Together the two come up with some extremely creative riffs that, while obviously still rooted in the traditionalist doom metal of old, offers up a degree of uniqueness that one doesn’t often experience in doom metal. They combine old school doom metal with desert rock stylings in such a way that the riffs provide the heaviness of the doom with the loud, noise rock-adjacent, fuzzed out tone of the desert. The opening to “Extreme Indifference to Life” still gets me every time I put it on.
Baron Lycan on the drums meanwhile keeps things super fun, upbeat and engaging. He’s got a lot of dynamism behind the kit, injecting tons of creative fills and catchy switch-ups between different sections that just adds so much more vivaciousness to the percussion section. This, when combined with the loudness of the guitars, makes for a hell of a punchy listening experience. This record deserves to be blasted loud, due in no small part to how hard Lycan is smashing up the kit on this thing.
This album is also wonderfully produced. The vocals are loud and punishing, reminiscent of the production on the last Crypt Sermon record. The guitars and bass are gloriously fuzzed out while maintaining the necessary level of heaviness and bite that all good metal needs. The drums are similarly in your face and aren’t smothered by the other instruments at all. It sounds old while new at the same time.
Heavy Temple earned a new fan in me with this new record of theirs. Despite having never listened to them before I’ve become addicted to Garden of Heathens and have come back to it time and time again since its initial release. I may have to go back and explore the band’s earlier discography but I’ll also be eagerly anticipating whatever they come out with next. A must listen for all doom metal fans.
Final Verdict: 8.5/10
Awesome
Favourite Tracks:
“Extreme Indifference to Life”
“Hiraeth”
“House of Warship”
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 