Posted in Whathaveyou on June 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Before they embark on this tour supporting the recently-unveiled four-piece incarnation of The Obsessed, Philadelphia troublemaker trio Heavy Temple will play at the Maryland Doom Fest at the end of this month, having already completed a stopover in Pittsburgh for Descendants of Crom IV this past weekend. Not too shabby as they continue to support their debut album, 2021’s Lupi Amoris (review here), which turns one in about a week.
They’re usually to be found kicking around Muddy Roots Music Festival in September, but I can’t seem to find their name on the bill this time. Maybe they were just going to go hang out or some such, I don’t know but I think they’re pretty tight with the fest, so it’d make a kind of sense. In any case, my hope is that this tour leads to more getting out. Heavy Temple are coming on due for a trip abroad, hitting European festivals and club shows as well, and the more they do domestically, the likelier they are to get that kind of attention.
So I suppose the depth of my professional insight here is it’s a good thing that the band looking to promote their album is going on tour to promote their album. Stay tuned to The Obelisk for more cutting edge expertise on the secret workings of the heavy underground.
Ah shit my kid’s up:
TOUR TIME! Super stoked to let y’all know we’ll be touring with @theobsessedofficial next month! Dates listed below:
7.14.22 Richmond, VA Richmond Music Hall 7.15.22 Spartanburg, SC Ground Zero 7.16.22 Knoxville, TN Brickyard 7.17.22 Chattanooga, TN JJ’s Bohemian 7.18.22 Lafayette, LA Freetown Boom Boom Room 7.19.22 New Orleans, LA Santos 7.20.22 Arlington, TX Growl & Division Brewery 7.21.22 Austin, TX Ripplefest 7.22.22 Austin, TX Ripplefest 7.23.22 Shreveport, LA Bears 7.24.22 Memphis, TN HiTone
(#128248#) @shannonnicolephoto_ Artwork by @_shit_posters
Heavy Temple: High Priestess Nighthawk – vocals, bass Lord Paisley – guitar Baron Lycan – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 18th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
These dates? Old news. I’ve been should-I-or-shouldn’t-I-post-them for the last week, looking at rising case numbers every day particularly in the Southeast and in the Midwest where ‘owning the libs’ is apparently worth potentially setting your lungs on fire. Enjoy that. Every time I post tour dates at this point I feel compelled to offer some sort of Covid disclaimer. “Hey this shit might not happen.” “Please check with your local service provider to confirm participation.”
Well, fine. If that’s what life has to be from here on out, okay. Heavy Temple currently hold place as my top debut of 2021 with June’s Lupi Amoris (review here) — don’t tell them I said so — so the way I’ve ultimately come down on the issue of whether or not to post the following tour dates is this: If it’s an excuse to tag the band in another social media blech, a chance to put up the Bandcamp streamer again and maybe catch an ear that hasn’t yet heard the album, then it’s worth it. I wasn’t gonna see these shows anyway. But maybe you hear the record and you live somewhere they’re hitting this time around. That’d be neat. Wear a mask. Get your shot. All that shit.
And listen to the record either way.
From the PR wire:
HEAVY TEMPLE announce US tour dates 2021
Pennsylvania’s psychedelic doomsters HEAVY TEMPLE have announced the first 2021 US tour dates in support of their acclaimed debut album “Lupi Amoris”. Please see below for a complete list of shows.
HEAVY TEMPLE comment: “We were fortunate enough to be able to put out an album during a time of much uncertainty, especially regarding live shows, so needless to say we’re excited to get back in the van”, writes frontwoman High Priestess Nighthawk. “Music, especially for us metalheads, is such a huge part of our lives. The last year and a half has been rough, to say the least, without any shows. We’ve been practicing the songs from ‘Lupi Amoris’ this whole time, and we’re ready for people to hear them the way we always intended, live and in person, even if we all have to take a few extra precautions to keep ourselves and our fans safe when we get there.”
“Lupi Amoris” was released on Friday June 18, 2021. Cover art, tracklist, and further details of “Lupi Amoris” may be viewed below.
HEAVY TEMPLE US TOUR DATES 26 AUG 2021 Pittsburgh, PA (US) Preserving Underground 27 AUG 2021 Detroit, MI (US) Sanctuary 28 AUG 2021 Columbus, OH (US) Ace of Cups 29 AUG 2021 Harrisonburg, VA (US) The Golden Pony 30 AUG 2021 Columbia, SC (US) Art Bar 31 AUG 2021 Atlanta, GA (US) Boggs & Social 01 SEP 2021 Chattanooga, TN (US) JJ’s Bohemia 03-05 SEP 2021 Cookeville, TN (US) Muddy Roots Music Festival
Line-up High Priestess Nighthawk – vocals, bass Lord Paisley – guitar Baron Lycan – drums
Philadelphia-based hard fuzz trio Heavy Temple make an awaited debut on June 18 with Lupi Amoris (review here), a first full-length years and multiple lineups in the making. Settled hopefully on the lineup of founding bassist/vocalist High Priestess Nighthawk, guitarist Lord Paisley and drummer Baron Lycan, the band take the opportunity to turn folkloric admonishment into emotional and sexual agency in the theme of the record — something consistent with their take on Funkadelic‘s “Hit it and Quit It” (discussed here) from last year, come to think of it — and do so in the context of rampant groove, psychedelic flourish and complex but memorable songcraft. If you and I were hanging out, talking about albums, I’d probably say something like, “Hey, this record’s really cool. You should check it out.”
This interview’s pretty casual. I manage to keep my nerding out over the songs to a low-enough to only be mildly embarrassing, which I’m proud of, while Nighthawk herself recounts the long process by which Lupi Amoris was realized, self-recording, moving, changing band members, changing songs accordingly, and on and on until, at last, Magnetic Eye will have the thing out and the band can move on to the new material already in progress. After 2016’s Chassit EP (review here) and their prior 2014 self-titled three-songer (review here), a quick turnaround to a second full-length would be welcome, but given the band’s history as a dedicated touring act in addition to everything else that’s come before this record’s arrival, one could hardly begrudge them wanting to celebrate this release on stage for a bit.
To that end, Heavy Temple headline this very weekend Philly’s Live on Front two-day outdoor fest. With Ruby the Hatchet as the corresponding second-night headliner and the likes of Slomo Sapiens, High Reeper and St. James and the Apostles on the bill, an hour-long set should provide a ready (and likewise awaited) opportunity for three-piece to showcase where they’re at. I asked Nighthawk about stepping on stage for the first time in over a year, as well as all the other stuff about the album, and yeah, it’ll probably be a good one. Hopefully the first of many.
It was Saturday afternoon. A band was recording downstairs at Chez Nighthawk and her roommate had houseguests. My kid was in the adjacent room screaming about who the hell knows what. So like I said, casual. In any case, if you get through the whole thing either watching or listening, I hope you enjoy.
Thanks for reading and/or watching.
Heavy Temple, Lupi Amoris Interview with High Priestess Nighthawk, May 29, 2021
Lupi Amoris is available to preorder now through Magnetic Eye Records ahead of the June 18 release. More info at the links.
It has been years of waiting leading to a debut album from Philadelphia’s Heavy Temple. They have since their dawning amassed a not-insignificant catalog of short releases — their self-titled EP (review here) in 2014 was followed by 2016’s Chassit EP (review here), and there was that same year’s take on Type O Negative‘s “Love You to Death” (discussed here) and last year’s P-Funk covers split with Wolf Blood benefitting Black Lives Matter (discussed here) — as well as a likewise not-insignificant amount of alumni. Founding bassist/vocalist High Priestess Nighthawk has overseen multiple full-lineup changes for the three-piece now comprised of herself, guitarist Lord Paisley and drummer Baron Lycan, and would seem to have hammered out the sound she envisioned for the band on the road rather than in the studio. Heavy Temple arrive at their first full-length with no shortage of anticipation and with years of touring behind them and performances as festivals far and wide, among them Psycho Las Vegas, Shadow Woods, SXSW, going back to Eye of the Stoned Goat 2 (review here) in Delaware in 2013.
Lupi Amoris, which sees release through Magnetic Eye Records, is the beneficiary of this experience. Recorded by Will Spectre at Red Water Recordings (points for another Type O reference) and mastered by Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound with striking, symbol-laden cover art by Alex Reisfar, the five-song/33-minute offering follows a theme recasting the folktale Little Red Riding Hood — at least mostly; I’m not sure how opener “A Desert Through the Trees” ties into the narrative, but neither have I seen a lyric sheet — as a tale of feminine empowerment and realized sexual agency. Through “The Wolf,” “The Maiden,” “Isabella (with Unrelenting Fangs)” and “Howling of a Prothalamion” — the latter term refers to a wedding poem — and indeed the prior leadoff cut, Heavy Temple bring the payoff toward which they’ve been working for years. When they issued Chassit, I argued in favor of it being their debut LP for its flow and the complete-feeling sensibility underlying the songs. It was more than the sampling an EP designation implied. Listening to Lupi Amoris half a decade later, the difference is abundantly clear. In sound and style, in the substance and breadth of its songs, Lupi Amoris brings Heavy Temple to a new level entirely.
The imagine of “unrelenting fangs” is a standout, but not necessarily the whole of what Lupi Amoris has to offer. “A Desert Through the Trees” fades in smoothly and builds up quick with a post-Songs for the Deaf weighted-fuzz shuffle, slowing its roll to open wide in the verse before a winding transition that calls to mind half-speed The Atomic Bitchwax leads to the chorus. The song is spacious, vital, full and melodic. Layering of vocals adds further character, and in the second half’s guitar solo, Lord Paisley unfurls the soundscape-minded intent that becomes one of the record’s strengths, blending atmosphere and momentum atop the strong rhythmic foundation of the bass and drums. Much of the focus here will inevitably be on Nighthawk, who is a powerful and charismatic presence in the songs as well as the driving force behind the band, but the contributions of neither Paisley nor Lycan should be discounted when it comes to taking the proceedings as a whole. Everybody’s performance has stepped up, and if this is to be at last the permanent lineup of Heavy Temple — something no less awaited than the record — it would only be to the benefit of the group and their listenership alike. One must keep in mind that while Heavy Temple as a unit have been together since the end of 2012, this incarnation only came together in 2019. In some ways, they’re just getting started.
And given what they achieve throughout Lupi Amoris, that’s an even more exciting prospect. “A Desert Through the Trees” caps furiously as a preface for some of what the nine-minute “Isabella (with Unrelenting Fangs)” will offer later, and “The Wolf” fades in its wah-echoing guitar over the first minute-plus as an intro before the bass arrives to mark the beginning of the creeping groove that ultimately defines the track. It’s a righteous riff in the tradition thereof, and the vocals duly howl upward from the mix, flourish of harmony arriving late in the guitar but no less welcome for its arrival, the band showing a patience of craft that underlies their more forward aspects and only continues to serve them well as “The Wolf” surges its transition directly into the feedback-and-guitar-and-bass beginning of “The Maiden.” The centerpiece of Lupi Amoris might also house the record’s most scorching progressions, pushing, shoving, running all the while, and the vocals join the wash late to emphasize the point, capping cold with quick noise before “Isabella (with Unrelenting Fangs)” takes hold, a psychedelic guitar winding in to build upward toward the eventual marching verse.
Immediately the spirit is looser, the focus more on swing. The nod. And fair enough. At 4:14 into its total 9:30, the drums drop out for a moment and Heavy Temple begin a slower, more thoroughly and willfully doomed stretch. It’s another minute-plus before howling vocals — lower in the mix at first — arrive, but as the song moves past the six-minute mark, a chaos of crashes and vast-echo guitar crescendos and recedes. There’s a pause. And then the guitar goes backward and the drums go forward and they jam their way back into the central riff so long left behind and top it with dual-channel shred and end cacophonous as is their apparent wont, leaving only the key-laced “Howling of a Prothalamion” to close out. Those keyboards bookend the instrumental finale, which likewise offers bounce and gallop, ebb and flow enough to summarize the proceedings on its own while pushing outward from where the prior song’s apex left off. The ultimate moral of the story here is that whatever Heavy Temple do to follow Lupi Amoris, they’ve got their work cut out for them.
One hesitates to speculate on direction or forward intent. It may be another seven or eight years before there’s a follow-up to Lupi Amoris. Or it won’t. And their sound may push into the sinister outer reaches that “Howling of a Prothalamion” hints toward in some of its riffing, or their next outing might find them moving along another path entirely. Universe of infinite possibilities. Another record may never happen. What matters is that after years of hammering out who and what Heavy Temple are and stand for, the accomplishments of this first LP can’t be undone, and they not only justify the band’s wait-until-it’s-right approach, but make a dodged bullet of their possibly having done anything else. There’s a fair amount of year left, and again, universe of infinite possibilities, but this is the best debut album I’ve heard thus far into 2021. Recommended.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 5th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
This is something to be excited about. I don’t think you need me to tell you that, but in case you do, I just did. Heavy Temple have been steadily working their way toward a full-length debut since well before their self-titled EP (review here) turned so many heads in 2014. In 2016, Chassit EP (review here) might’ve sufficed — sure sounded like an album to be, even at 28 minutes — but without that official “here you go this is an album” stamp, one tends to defer to whatever a band wants to call their own release.
Because of that, the impending Lupi Amoris feels even more like an event, since while Heavy Temple haven’t been at all absent — they’ve been through a couple lineups at this point, but a steady stream of short releases and live shows/fest appearances has kept their momentum going — they’ve specifically chosen this is as their moment to offer a first LP. June 18 is the release date, and preorders are up, as well as the streaming track “The Maiden,” which would seem to be an essential component of the narrative aspect of the songs.
I’ll hope to have more on this before it’s out. I haven’t heard the full thing yet, but it’s been one I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.
PR wire info follows:
HEAVY TEMPLE release first single ‘The Maiden’ and details of debut full-length “Lupi Amoris”
HEAVY TEMPLE crash forth like a roaring mastodon in a thunderstorm with their first official full-length, “Lupi Amoris,” and it has all the markings of a landmark record.
As progressive as BARONESS but unselfconscious, as heavy as FU MANCHU but more adventurous, this Philadelphia trio throw every lever in the riff-metal machine, yet also wield lyrical concepts that register on literary levels.
“Lupi Amoris” offers a one-way trip through wide-open spaces and deep forests. Its songs wind and deposit heavy flotsam like a mighty musical stream, pushing through swirling rapids, cutting through riff-mountains, and swelling with addictive grooves. Riding atop the sonic waves, singer and bass player High Priestess Nighthawk belts powerfully over the roaring din.
When HEAVY TEMPLE came into being on the 2012 winter solstice, the trio were after the pure fun and joy of playing heavy music, illustrated by each founding member’s chosen nom de guerre: High Priestess Nighthawk, Rattlesnake, and Bearadactyl.
At first playing shows locally in Philly, the band quickly gained an excellent live reputation, leading to tours alongside RUBY THE HATCHET, MOTHERSHIP, ROYAL THUNDER and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY. Invitations to notable festivals included The Maryland Doom Fest, Psycho Las Vegas, and Decibel Metal & Beer, among many others. It’s an impressive live showing made even more remarkable when considering that HEAVY TEMPLE have yet to release their debut full-length.
After their first self-released and self-titled EP “Heavy Temple” (2014) was picked up by esteemed German cult label Ván Records, the self-released single ” Love You To Death ” and sophomore EP “Chassit” followed in 2016. Second single “Key & Bone” arrived in 2018, and the split 7″ “From the Black Hole” with WOLFBLOOD materialized in 2020, but it took until 2021 for a full album to appear on the horizon at last. It speaks volumes about HEAVY TEMPLE’s talent and face-melting live impact that the invitations to attractive tours and prestigious festivals continued to roll in anyway.
Although HEAVY TEMPLE leverage all the trappings of traditionally male-oriented metal (to the point that their sound could proudly sport a full beard), the powerful presence of frontwoman and sole remaining founding member High Priestess Nighthawk merges their glorious heaviness with a strong thematic line of feminine strength.
“Lupi Amoris” is Latin for “Wolves of Love,” and takes strong inspiration from Angela Carter’s story “The Company of Wolves.” In it, the narrative of Red Riding Hood is flipped from a cautionary tale about the dangers of lust and desire, feelings young women were traditionally expected to stifle, to a story of female sexuality and power reclaimed. “Lupi Amoris” finds the Philly outfit aligning with a Red Riding Hood who is freed from the traditional bonds of what’s expected.
Proving that it’s quite possible to hammer out gargantuan stoner doom and still say something about life’s realities, HEAVY TEMPLE make a fierce and much-needed statement with “Lupi Amoris”, and at these volumes, the world is guaranteed to hear it.
Tracklist 1. A Desert through the Trees 2. The Wolf 3. The Maiden 4. Isabella (with Unrelenting Fangs) 5. Howling of a Prothalamion
Recorded & mixed by Will Spectre at Red Water Recordings Mastered by Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound Mastering
Artwork by Alex Reisfar Layout by Zach Thomas
Line-up High Priestess Nighthawk – vocals, bass Lord Paisley – guitar Baron Lycan – drums
