Twin Temple – God Is Dead
Twin Temple – God Is Dead
MRI
Release Date: 13/10/23
Running Time: 26:42
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 10/10
It is well known to all the regular readers of my nonsense that Dark Juan is something of a follower of the Left-Hand Path. Dark Juan is a Hellpriest in the service of The One Who Walks Backwards and the One True Faith of Extreme Music. The two have been conflated in Dark Juan’s head for so long that they are now inextricably intertwined. Rock ‘n’ Roll has always been the Devil’s music, from the time Robert Johnson sold his soul to Old Nick in return for jaw-dropping abilities on the guitar, to Deicide roaring in a sepulchral fashion about ‘Snakes Of Christ’ and ‘Serpents Of The Light’ and the blood-soaked, gore-splattered Black Metal bands rampaging out of Scandinavia, lit only by the flames of ancient stave churches burning to the ground in praise of the Fallen Angel…
Yes, Satan is an integral part of the DNA of Extreme music. So is sex. Dark Juan is an avid and experienced practitioner of those dark arts also. You should probably not ask too many questions as to why Dark Juan’s eyes go wide, and his voice drops to a seductive rumble when he smells blood and wine. In fact, if you are one of the believers in the False God and his treacherous Son, you would be better advised to back slowly and carefully out of the room without drawing attention to yourself lest you become a participant in some depraved sex magick rite in praise of Lucifer. Hempen ropes and consecrated blades are involved, as well as many other pleasures to which I shall not allude in these words.
Dark Juan has just returned from taking a cold shower and has calmed himself before he gives away too many details of his rites and his out and out sadism. Time, then, to start up the Satanic Platter Of Splatter™ and play some music in praise of the Archfiend Mephistopheles, brought to us by those impeccably well-dressed, incredibly-coiffed and charismatic friends of Beelzebub, those well-known practitioners of Witchcraft, Dark Arts and the Esoteric, America’s Twin Temple.
If you are a purist as far as Metal and Extreme music goes – you’d probably best stop reading here, to be honest. You are not going to be interested in Dark Juan describing the black, blasphemous joys of Satanic Doo-Wop music. There are many fine writers (including myself) on Ever-Metal.com to read to slake your thirst for Metal. Dark Juan wanders the shadows, the hinterlands of Extremity and there you will find the joys of Twin Temple. Alexandra and Zachary James pledged themselves to my Lord and Master Satan and he in return blessed them with talents so wonderful that they cannot be anything else but captivating.
“God Is Dead” is notable because it is recorded in Mono (and opens on ‘Burn Your Bible’ with the sound of thunder and mournfully tolling bells before the saccharine sounds of 50s/60s Rock ‘n’ Roll begin, but with a lyric that is blasphemous in the extreme) because the band believe that the music they play is more “alive” and has more soul because it is not a clean, clear stereo production. Twin Temple also record live on tape in one take, playing each song two or three times and then choosing the best take for the album. Dark Juan approves of this method because it lends the band a vitality and excitement that uber-produced music, overly fucked about with, lacks.
If you have heard Twin Temple before, you will know what to expect from “God Is Dead”. Alexandra James is a fine singer, her voice dripping with suggestive sexiness and with a soulfulness that fits the 50s guitar work and arrangements perfectly. Dark Juan would love to praise Satan with her. Her range is excellent, and her full-blooded delivery is always seductive and swaying and sexy as hell. Ditto Zachary’s guitar work and musical arrangement. The man has a keen appreciation of the music of the 50s and 60s – it bops and sways and does the mashed potato and the twist and wouldn’t be out of place at a high school party in 1950s small town America. It is not beyond the realms of imagination to think about the likes of the Shangri-Las or Buddy Holly singing these songs and that is entirely due to Zachary James’ understanding of the music. ‘Let’s Have A Satanic Orgy’ indeed… Twin Temple’s music is a massive contrast between the sweetness and teenage innocence of Rock ‘n’ Roll in its infancy and the black perversions of Satanic worship, and it is a unique and seductive mix – Twin Temple’s music is intoxicated teenage sexual rebellion on the backseat of a Gothed-up 1959 Chevy Impala with a copy of the Satanic Bible abandoned on the front seat together with the underwear of both young people. It is depraved black sex magick under a full moon where naked bodies intertwine and make the beast with two backs running with blood, horribly intoxicated on wine and herbs, where personality has been subsumed under sheer, unadulterated sensation, and NEED.
Twin Temple are rather cleverer than you think. They have subverted the music of the very people who would clutch their metaphorical pearls and scream corruption at the lyrics. They have updated the music that was railed against by conservatives way back when (because it was the Devil’s music, according to the priests and the politicians of the time) and have actually now turned it into the Devils’ music – ‘Be A Slut’ shows this admirably with a strong, danceable tempo and classic arrangement and a lyric that would make an American pastor spontaneously combust – horns, guitar and honky-tonk piano underpin a lyric that is as much about the sexual liberation of women as it is about winding up the conservatives. Ditto ‘Let’s Have A Satanic Orgy’ – all dance breaks and silliness on the surface, but again a paean to freedom when you look beneath the surface. The record closes with the title track, ‘God Is Dead’ and it is a swooping, Doo-Wop ballad, all lush arrangements, gorgeous backing vocals and cheerful, rebellious music – normally it would be some teen icon opening their heart about their lost love, or the boy/ girl who doesn’t notice them and their heart is breaking because of their unrequited ardour. Not so ‘God Is Dead’. It’s pretty self-explanatory what it’s about.
Twin Temple are one of Dark Juan’s favourite modern bands because they are so unique. No-one else combines melody and murder quite so comfortably. They have turned the music that terrified the establishment of 50s/ 60s America into the Devil’s music truly, and they have done it under the nose of the current establishment. A truly momentous achievement, indeed.
Dark Juan is forever in their thrall, and Twin Temple inspire Dark Juan to carry on preaching the gospel of Satan and to take the lambs of God and turn them, with flesh upon and within flesh and libations and the desecration of the houses of the False God with the bodies of the previously faithful into the servants of the Horned God. Let Twin Temple be your soundtrack to a new age of debauchery.
Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the law.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System’s mind is a riot of possible perversions right now and awards Twin Temple 10/10 for a record that is Metal as fuck without being even closely related to Metal.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Burn Your Bible
02. (Fallin’ For A) Fallen Angel
03. Let’s Have A Satanic Orgy
04. Two Sinners
05. Black Magick
06. Spellbreaker
07. Be A Slut
08. God Is Dead
LINE-UP:
Alexandra James – Vocals
Zachary James – Guitars, arrangements
LINKS:
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