Halfway to Heartache 2012

"Hey, this stuff is pretty good! Drawing a lot on AOR and commercial melodic hard rock, this album is still heavy enough in terms of riffage that I would consider it a metal album.

True, there are melodic keyboards, and many of the figures delivered via the keyboards have a certain 80s pop-rock feel to them. And, yes, there are catchy melodic choruses with commercial mass appeal. And, yup, there are romantic power ballads perfect to heal broken hearts.

But this is neatly counterbalanced by heavy metal guitars and chucking powerful metal riffage, twin guitars and uptempo drumming. Just check out a track like the uptempo Maiden-inspired 'I Will Follow', which is a perfect ass-kicking album opener or the groovy 'Misery'. And, perhaps surprisingly to some, this combination of melodic AOR-elements and heavy metal riffage works impeccably (of course this owes to the massive talent involved in Human Temple - not everyone can achieve this sort of balance).

So, fans of hard rock and classic metal should find this release enjoyable - it's melodic AND it rocks hard!

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"