Chapter I

There’s been a heavy trend in younger metal bands of late towards revivalism, particularly insofar as thrash metal and earlier heavy metal goes. Although many of these bands have a fair amount of good music to offer, the tendency generally tends to be a limited homage to maybe one or two specific bands. The older resurgence of power metal in the late 90s and early 2000s was often derided as being a similar form of revivalism, but this view doesn’t really do justice to the full nature of what went on at that time, even in the case of obviously conservative attempts at reliving the glory of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Accept and others by the likes of Cryonic Temple.

Said Swedish band’s debut album, humbly titled “Chapter 1”, is definitely the most backward looking of their offerings. In the height of 2002, when similar soundings acts like Hammerfall and Iron Savior were polishing their sound to fit more modern production sensibilities, this album offered a more archaic, though still well mixed stew of familiar metal influences. It is primarily an exercise in pure speed metal with an old school melodic edge, barring the occasional slower rocker that highlights the band’s harder edged, German influences such as “Metal Brothers”, an obvious nod to Accept’s “Balls To The Wall” era. One could almost liken it to a harder edged “Ram It Down” meets “Powerslave”, save perhaps the blistering vocal homage to Eric Adams heard out of Johan Johansson (aka Glen Metal).

As a whole, this is actually Cryonic Temple’s freshest, most inspired offering. The riff work, albeit mostly a sped up version of NWOBHM in most cases, is highly proficient and underscores the fact that quality can surpass quantity. The average song consists of perhaps 3 or 4 different ideas, with the center focus towards catchiness. Particularly songs such as “Heavy Metal Never Dies”, “Warsong”, and “Steel Against Steel” are masterfully crafted in this respect, moving quickly yet lending themselves to being sung along with in a live venue. This is the same sort of idea that bands like Metalium and Hammerfall have, but here there’s no token ballad to gum up an otherwise straight shot of old school aggression. The auspiciously titled “King Of Transylvania” deviates a little from the earlier metal format with something more along the lines of “Keepers” era Helloween, with a chorus that almost sounds pop-like, save the speed and the vocal assault.

For the most part, this follows the typical line of metal worship pioneered by Manowar in terms of lyrical content, barring one exception. Though musically “Rivers Of Pain” is cut from the same “Powerslave” model that most of the other speed metal songs on here in its riff approach, there is a surprising level of depth and perspective lyrically that separates it from the rest of the album. The closest comparison to its cynical take on society and how people have grown numb to the suffering around them would be Mob Rules, not to mention the somber 30 second lead up which is heavily similar to something said German outfit would dabble in, though they didn’t really get into this line of lyrical protest until a couple years after this.

Those drawn towards 80s metal will find a lot of goodies here, and a slightly more proficient alternative to backward looking power metal contemporaries like Sacred Steel and 3 Inches Of Blood. It’s archaic, loaded with familiar sounds, but it does present them in a way that is fresher and newer than an outright tribute band. Heavy Metal may not always be about heroics, knights in shinning armor, and all the idealistic fantasy that goes with such things, but for those who want a heavy dose of it, this is a fine pickup.

Cryonic Temple is a band who stick to the Iron Maiden formula for success, which by no means is a bad thing at all, with twin guitar harmonies, air raid siren like vocals(without being too high or whiny), and plenty of songs about war. However, Maiden has been much better at lyric writing, in the past at least, than Cryonic Temple's songs of war and battles. I personally find it enjoyable to find a band such at this how proudly attempts to glorify the name of heavy metal, with such songs as Heavy Metal Never Dies and Metal Brothers.

Heavy Metal Never Dies is a brillantly written song, and makes a statement of something that should have been said a long time ago, however the chorus repeating "Fight, Fight..." does get sort of stale before the track comes to an end.

Metal Brothers is probably one of the best altogether songs on the album. It begins with a twin guitar riff and quiets down to have the singer begins the first verse with "They came to us and stole our gold". By the time the second verse arrives, there is a galloping drum and bass riff throughout the song which definately reminds many of Iron Maiden in their prime.

Rivers of Pain is more similar to an early Gamma Ray or Primal Fear style of power metal at least with the chorus. Containing a 4-line chorus where they try to rhyme every word in the dictionary with sky. Besides the chorus, the lyrics in this song are very strong and talk alot about what is wrong with the world today.

Steel Against Steel is the absolute best song on the album. I originally downloaded the mp3 off of mp3.com and the songs are slightly different from the demo and the album. The demo originally starts off with a twin guitar riff similar to Metal Brothers, but on the album, the riff is played by one guitar alone with no accompaniment and is eventually joined in with the other guitar, which builds up more suspense and improves the song. This traditional metal track with power metal tendencies displays excellent guitar work throughout the whole song until the end. There is no moment of repetiveness here and you won't be tempted to skip it.

In terms of originality, there is only so much that Cryonic Temple can do, but at least they picked some interesting and entertaining bands to pay homage to. I think Cryonic Temple has a uniqueness in their song structure even though they do adopted several established elements of power and traditional heavy metal. I would suggest giving these guys a listen, especially if you are an NWOBHM fan.