Immortal

It's become a frighteningly standard affair for me to ponder the various experimental failures that have unfolded in recent years amongst some of my favorite metal bands. These casualties of innovation, to put it bluntly, have this cliche mentality of outgrowing whatever concept they started with, though most don't offend as blatantly as Metallica has repeatedly done for the past couple decades. But while some are horrendously terrible, most tend to simply be a noticeable yet not quite extreme decline into banal mediocrity. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the very poorly received "Carpe DiEnd" out of Steel Attack, which was not quite a 100% flop, but reflected a drastic change in direction that inevitably left a lot to be desired.

An equal opportunity offender in this department was the last thing heard out of Cryonic Temple, another band touting its faithful adherence to the ways of the sword and the warriors that wield it. They tended away from the overt German speed metal character and had more of a keyboard and anthem tinged approach to honoring the armor toting soldier, almost like an offshoot of late 80s Iron Maiden crossed with Helloween from the same time period. But "Immortal" is a much different beast, in fact, it doesn't resemble anything that the band put out in their 10 years plus history. The closest comparison would be to the darker, almost speed/thrash modernist oriented tendencies of one-time Limb Music adherents Rising Faith, minus most of the catchy elements that made said band an interesting alternative to all the overt "Keeper Of The Seven Keys" emulations that were pouring in circa 2003.

The one positive thing that can be gleaned from this otherwise confused undertaking is that it is largely a guitar oriented album. The riff set largely tends to resemble the chunky sensibilities of many recent bands that carry a slight melodeath character to them, particularly that of a select handful of Finnish bands. Unfortunately the riff set still largely retains that comically simple architecture and heavily repetitive feel of previous endeavors, while lacking the fist in the air heroism of the past. Vocalist Magnus Thurin is competent, but largely too straight of a shooter to make a really lasting impression the way Glen Metal's campy 80s voice did. In similar fashion, the song set becomes garbled in spite of a continued adherence to the standard tenets of power metal. Some songs such as the gallop happy "Where Sadness Never Rests" and the frenzied cooker with a powerful chorus "Fear Of The Rage" come close to touching the uncompromising brilliance of "No Guts, No Glory", while the awkward drag of a title song and the Pantera groove stomp of "Beg Me" sound woefully out of place, even though they lack any truly revolting aspects.

It's a bit of a cop-out to just simple assert that one take the good with the bad, but any prospective buyers of this album with any past experience with prior works should approach this album like they would a brand new band touting a wildly different sound. Personally, a power metal band trying to delve into mature and relevant subject matter in the way done on here is far from my cup of tea, let alone one that planted their flag on something much less cynical not one or two, but three times with great success. It's sad that so many bands find it necessary to screw around with perfection, but it's apparently the order of the day. Those who want modernity might be taken in, but all old school plate mail hounds would do well to raise their chalices to the mighty melodies of Paragon or Stormwarrior instead, or just simply pop in any one of this band's previous 3 albums.

A lot has happened for Swedish metal band Cryonic Temple since their last CD, entitled ‘In thy power’ and released in 2005. For starters, there has been a massive clean out within the band, with just 2 members still in the line-up from their previous CD. Both members are the 2 original guitarists, Leif Collin and Esa Ahonen. Entertaining vocalist Johan Johansson, aka Glen Metal, left the band along with drummer Sebastian Olsson, Bassist Jan Cederlund and keyboardist Janne Soderlund.

Filling those vacant positions are vocalist Magnus Thurin, bassist Björn Svensson and drummer Hans Karlin. Cryonic Temple’s change of personnel has not included a keyboardist for their latest CD, called ‘Immortal’. The band has also gone to a new record label, Metal Heaven, after their previous 2 releases with LMP/SPV. Finally, with the new influx of musicians comes a new direction, sound-wise for this metal band.

With ‘Chapter 1’, ‘Blood, guts & glory’ and ‘In thy power’ being fantasy power metal (knights, warriors, dragons, swords, fighting, etc), this new CD has put an end to what we have known Cryonic Temple to be. Whatever the reason, this new line-up for Cryonic Temple have severely changed their style; going for a more modern heavy metal sound, just a bit more aggressive than the norm, plus hints of power metal thrown into the mix. What once was unmistakably Cryonic Temple, with Glen Metal at the helm and their signature sound, has now become something that we’ve all heard before, something that doesn’t stand out amongst the rest. This band has obviously chosen the safe method here.

The new vocalist Magnus Thurin is a decent singer, who reminds me a lot of Andy B. Franck from Brainstorm; and also a cross between Zach Stevens (Circle II Circle) and Ronny Hemlin (Steel Attack). I feel, however, that he doesn’t have enough range in his vocals. Although Thurin has some melody in his voice, his method of deliverance is typical; sticking to his strengths, which is mid-high pitched shouting. Music-wise, as mentioned earlier, Cryonic Temple are now much more aggressive, with every track on the CD bar 2, a fierce a double-bass fest with fast “in your face” shredding of the guitars.

This new style does have its flaws, as the songwriting and end result of most of the songs on ‘Immortal’ sound quite similar to one another. There is hardly any diversity between the tracks and none of the songs really catch your ear the first time round. Yes, there are some great tracks and some poor ones too, and the guitar shredding, chunky riffs and beefed up solos will appeal to a lot of fans. The bottom line is that Cryonic Temple still have a few kinks to work out in their new sound and songwriting in general.

The tracks which I feel are the best of the bunch are “Where sadness never rests”; a long 6-minute track, which contains a great galloping riff and is the most melodic track on the whole CD. It is also Magnus Thurin’s best performance vocally. “Fear of the rage” is a fast track fitting of its title, with a top opening riff and scream from Thurin after the slow intro. The track also has a memorable chorus and solo. “Fight to survive” is a guitar-driven track, with riffs sounding almost borderline modern thrash. It has a nice feel and flow, with another melodic solo worth waiting for. And finally “Train of destruction”, contains a riff from Leif Collin and Esa Ahonen which reminded me of the old-sounding Cryonic Temple. In fact the song as a whole is the closest to anything reminiscent of the original sound of Cryonic Temple.

Overall, I must say that personally I am a little disappointed that Cryonic Temple have changed their style so dramatically, and to change it to something where now they sound like any other modern aggressive heavy metal band. Obviously there is a huge market in this genre of metal where the band can grab new fans and I understand their reasons for doing so. But by doing this, they have also cast aside all remnants of the original sounding Cryonic Temple, much like Paradise Lost, when they completely changed their style after ‘Draconian times’. As for the CD itself, I must say that ‘Immortal’ is good, but not great. Like I said before, the band needs to iron out a few things before continuing down their current musical pathway. Fans of Cryonic Temple may take a while to get used to their new sound, while fans of modern aggressive heavy metal such as Brainstorm, Steel Attack and Mystic Prophecy will relish ‘Immortal’.

Originally reviewed for www.metalcdratings.com and www.themetalforge.com

Presenting another example of maturity in the Metal World – the new, and fourth album, of Cryonic Temple from Borlang, Sweden. The Swedish Metallers are back in the saddle, along with a new helm's man and a new axeman, with their best release to date, demonstrating sheer power, heaviness, speed and their finest element, melody.

The Cryonics were formed in 1996, under the flow of Power Metal all around the world and especially in Europe. Their name originated from Cryo technology. After releasing an amount of demos between the years 1997-2002, they signed with Underground Symphony and through it released their first official debut in 2002 that goes by the name of Chapter 1. Obviously, it was only the beginning for these folks and a year later they sent a nice treat for the Metal world with their second release in 2003, Blood, Guts And Glory under their new label LMP. A couple of years later they release their third album, and one of their best, In Thy Power. In 2008, the band went through a change that brought them their best album, Immortal, under their newest label, Metal Heaven.

The band's influences derive from the 80's British Heavy Metal scene such as Maiden, Priest , Deep Purple and Heavy Metal from various German bands like: Accept and old Helloween. The fact that differentiates them from their Power Metaller label mates, Crystal Eyes, is that they also derive influences from Old School Thrash Metal such as early Megadeth , Slayer , Exodus and Testament. These Thrash Metal components are very noticeable, especially, around this album.

As the band promised, this album is their heaviest piece yet. With the help of an amazing production, that was partly made in Underground Studios, along with crunchy, trebled heavy and B tuned guitars, divine bass lines, accurate and driving drums and diverse vocal lines. This sound production, in many ways, makes this release a well done deal based on speed and power.

When listening to the band's current material, one notices that a change has occurred in their way of writing music and lyrics. Since they began releasing stuff their main lyrical themes were about fantasy, wars, warriors and praising Heavy Metal. Those lyrical themes were, vastly, spread among Heavy and Power Metal acts under their undisputed leader, Manowar. But, as for Immortal in particular, there is more than a slight change of approach. The album discusses not just about the latter themes, like in the tracks: "Immortal", "Standing Tall" and "Fight To Survive", but on themes such as deep emotions and thoughts. These current themes elevate the band's stature from an all traditional warrior Power Metal band to something much more Progressive.

With the difference of approach around the lyrics, comes the change in making the actual music. Immortal presents a heavier and more progressive Cryonic Temple. The music is more technical and complex than previous albums. The technicality and progressiveness is very similar to various sub-genres such as Melodic Death Metal and modern Power / Thrash Metal, for example acts like: Children Of Bodom, Norther, Brainstorm, Brimstone and Dark Empire. These elements are shown with shred parts, complex solos and various changes of pace. Going more technical and heavier transforms the Cryonics to a modernized Power Metal act and less traditional like other acts that are still loyal to the old ways of the movement. Tracks for example: "Train Of Destruction" , "Where Sadness Never Rests" and "Freedom Calling". The main part that still exists within the Cryonics is the melody that always shines in all of their releases.

One of the band's major breakthroughs, concerning Immortal and in general, was the recruitment of a new vocalist and a guitarist. In the old lineup the vocalist, Glen Metal, was also a guitarist. Today, Magnus Thurin, is the champion on the vocals and with the edition of a new guitarist, he can devote 100% of his abilities to the band's material, and so he did. Thurin, before he came to Cryonic Temple, was the lead vocals and guitarist for the 90's Swedish Power Metal band, Mindscape, which turned out to be a short lived ride. He style and influences are mixed with high end notes, deep tones and somewhat a combination of clean and raspy voice. With his finest abilities he demonstrates all around the album, he provides the touches of old and new.

Overall, all the songs are amazing with astonishing performance that , in terms of effect , lives on within the mind. The best of them can really turn some tables. The opening track is the self titled "Immortal" that blasts off with the speed and power that makes this album great with melodies, great solos and a fine chorus. "Standing Tall" along with "Fight To Survive" are reminders of the band's early releases but with a much greater power and force. "Where Sadness Never Rests" and "Beg Me" presents the new era of Cryonic Temple with new lyrical themes along with galloping heavy music and great melodies. Also in the album is the great, yet sadly, short, beautiful ballad, "As I Sleep" which is a magical track. The one thing that is annoying in this release, concerning the tracks, is why the band didn't end the album with "As I Sleep" , it’s a great closer, and instead they close with the track , "Departure" that is totally boring and it seemed forced.

Cryonic Temple drives the lane of success with yet another great album that is probably their best work. Maturing and evolving with their music and lyrics really helped them, staying tuned with the Metal world progress. May their later works be as golden as this one.

Man, I used to love this fucking band. They were generic, they were cheesy as Hell and they played with a lot of pride and youthful vigor. They were your typical "swords and sorcery warrior Metal band," and they were damn good at it. The songwriting was always sort of Maidenish and derivative, and they were never the most dynamic band ever, but who cares about that? Well, apparently the other members of Cryonic Temple sure did after their vocalist departed from the band, because this is not exactly up the same tree as the excellent Blood, Guts and Glory back in 2003.

Immortal is a heinously boring and dull album full of "more mature" and "darker" songwriting, that just seems to scream "we're too grown up to play fun music anymore, so here's an overly polished, sterile turd with attempts at being deep and insightful." There are almost no hooks here at all, and the band just doesn't seem to have any chemistry together - all of these songs feel forced and disjointed, although they try to cover that up by playing heavier and louder than ever. Magnus Thorin is a decent vocalist, perhaps more competent technically than good ole Glen Metal was, but I don't like him as well; his voice just doesn't really stand out all that much, being pretty much a second rate Ronny Hemlin or Rob Rock, and the stuff he's singing is usually pretty tepid and bland itself, anyway.

The production may be heavier and clearer than ever, but the songwriting is just stale. There are a lot of embellishments here, with slightly more complex song structures and some darker over-tones that just baffle me, as the band was never known for that sort of thing. Cryonic Temple have completely lost the sloppy, cheery, hooky "Metal forever!"-esque cheesiness that made their earlier albums so appealing in that juvenile, silly way. They were never a serious band, and so this new, more serious direction is going to have to be elaborated upon a lot further before I or any of their other fans buy it. Even though songs like the title track and the mammoth "Where Sadness Never Rests" are technically sound, all they really evoke from me is a yawn. "Standing Tall" is about the only good song on here, but its big, catchy chorus and speedy tempo will fool you into thinking the rest of the album is worth anything at all - it is not. Everything else is pretty much dung, climaxing with the atrocious closing tracks "As I Sleep" and "Departure." Disgusting.

A disappointing and lame album from a tired band. I know this might not sound bad to people who have never heard the band, and others will simply delude themselves as I did at first into thinking that this is any good, but it's not. It sucks. I'm not going to count Cryonic Temple out yet, as they may come back strong in a few years with a real killer of an album, but unless you like crusty, soggy, third-rate Power Metal, you can avoid this one this holiday season, as it is mostly equal to a big ole lump of coal in your stocking.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com