Heavy Temple – Garden Of Heathens

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · December 26, 2024

Heavy Temple formed in 2012 and are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band play heavy metal riff centric rock with a doomy and psychedelic edge. Heavy Temple released two EPs, 2014’s Self Titled and 2016’s Chassit. Their debut full length album followed in 2021, entitled Lupi Amoris (Wolves of Love). The band released their sophomore album Garden of Heathens on April 12th 2024, on Magnetic Eye Records. The lineup of Heavy Temple consists of High Priestess Nighthawk on bass and vocals, Christian Lopez on guitars, and Will Mellor on drums. The album contains eight tracks in forty five minutes time.

Garden Of Heathens opens with “Extreme Indifference To Life”, which begins with a nice driving guitar riff. The bass and drums kick in adding a heavy wall of fuzz to the mix. Priestess Nighthawk’s vocals add an evil yet angelic touch to the music and works extremely well. Her voice has a high soaring dynamic with chilling doomy vibes. The band sounds heavy despite only being a three piece. They incorporate nice double bass drumming and beautiful guitar leads too. “Hiraeth” cranks in next with a mid tempo pace throughout. It’s a rocking straight ahead song which oozes metal guitar riffing and leads a plenty. The third track “Divine Indiscretion” boasts some wah guitar tones which involves a nice grooving texture throughout. Nighthawk’s vocals soar with the power of Benatar. The song has a nice pickup rhythm around the 3:15 point and garnishes some rocking grooves. Then the song shifts into a subdued psychedelic meltdown and displays some excellent guitar solos before coming back with a smashing ending. Heavy Temple has an authentic seventies rock element infused into their sound, which is really addressed on this song.

“House Of Warship” starts with Nighthawk’s wailing churchy vibe sounding vocals and transcends into a heavy doom style rock song. The music has a lot going on between the hard edged riffing and classic heavy metal guitar leads. It’s all blanketed with a thick layer of doom metal enticed with the dynamic voice of Nighthawk. “Snake Oil (And Other Remedies)” emotes a lot of feeling within the sound through Nighthawk’s eerie and emotional vocals and the heavy music itself. The hard pounding drumming with the blazing guitar rhythms herald a rocking yet psychedelic landscape of sounds throughout the almost nine minute track. “In The Garden Of Heathens” acts as somewhat as an interlude with its softer tone of acoustic guitars and airy atmospheric layering. The instrumental blends into the next track called “Jesus Wept”. Feedback guitar and a solid drum beat begins the song. The guitars flare into a noise rock complex that cranks into fury of heavy riffing. When the vocals enter, the guitar harmonizes with them and then crushes back into the riffing. The music is a cascade of heavy riffs augmented together in waves of devastating sounds. Heavy Temple creates an avalanche of hard driving music especially on this track.

However, when the final track “Psychomanteum” starts, the music sends you in a whirlwind of frenzied moshing. The thrashing and rhythmic crunching of the song gets a metal head’s nod of approval. The old school metal riffing with guitar squeals and all are all present here. The instrumental closer is the final punch delivered by Heavy Temple in this excellent follow up album. Garden Of Heathens has the perfect formula for what heavy metal harmonies and doom rock riffing can achieve with intelligent integration.