Cryonic Temple - In thy power 4/5
Reviewed: 8-26-05
Tracklist:
1. The sleep of the innocent
2. When hell freezes over
3. In thy power
4. Travellers in time
5. Beast slayer
6. Wolfcry
7. Mr. Gold
8. A soldiers tale
9. Shark attack
10. Rapid fire
11. Eternal flames of metal
12. Empire (bonus track)
13. Redeemer (bonus track)
14. As I slowly die (bonus track)
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Cryonic Temple is power metal in its purest form. Anything that Manowar would be proud of fits that description and this CD would definitely put a smile on the faces of Manowar. The concept of the band is very simple - aggressive and melodic songwriting, dynamic singing and loud, screaming guitars. That’s pretty much all there is to this band, but they do it very, very well. This is their 3rd CD and while it may be their best, they have been true to this straightforward power metal sound since the release of their first CD and both of their previous CDs are also very good.
After a short, and not very interesting, instrumental intro, 'In thy power’ starts off at an incredible pace with the first 2 real tracks. “When hell freezes over” has a great verse that can be thought of as a metal version of Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the fire” or REM’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it” with a bunch of only semi-related words thrown around in rapid sequence; this works very, very well on this tremendous track. The equally good title track follows. After these tracks, the quality of the songwriting dips somewhat with only 2 more, “A soldiers tale” and “Eternal flames of metal” being very good. The others range from average to good. One of the great things about Cryonic Temple, however, is even when they are working with an average track they are able to make it seem better than that because of a fabulous production, melodic and interesting playing and a singer who was born to sing this style of music. A special note must be made of one of the bonus tracks; it is highly recommended that you find a version of this CD with the bonus track “As I slowly die”. It is from the band’s 2000 demo and is a really good midtempo track, although the production is less sharp than the new tracks.
Cryonic Temple has quickly moved from an intriguing new band to a veteran band of 3 excellent CDs and a band that seems to be getting better with every CD. There’s no reason for any power metal fan to not enjoy this CD; and it should be enjoyed by others who like melodic metal. The band may not have the most creative song structures ever heard, but they stick to what they do and they do it very, very well. The only thing that they could do at this point to improve, would be to have a better ratio of great songs to good songs. But even the good songs are very enjoyable and there isn’t a bad track to be found on this very tasty CD.
DAVID
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