Temple of Your Soul
For All

Not the most interesting of band names this one, the German band seem to have a little problem picking a good name and also making an interesting album cover. A completely grey album cover just does not appeal to people and it will probably be skipped over for looking so dull. And this even though the name indicates that it is an album for all of us, it is named For All. It is the first album by this band even though they have existed since 2006 so either they are very lazy or they have been working a lot to perfect this album. I have no idea which alternative that is the correct one but I do have a hard time believing that many bands would work with an album for that amount of time nowadays.

It is female fronted heavy metal with quite typical heavy metal power chords and riffs, the vocals are not borrowing from the opera or something like that just typical female rock singing one could say. There are some classical undertones, also undertones of keys and similar elements there to add some more depth into the music. But as a whole these small additional touches are not easily noticed and often passes by without you even reflecting over the fact that they are there, moreover the production is modern heavy metal with classic modern heavy metal sound some guitar soloing and all of that but the short description would still be that it is quite typical heavy metal with female vocals. There are ten tracks on the album and with somewhat of a variation but not that much, these ten play just beyond the 43 minute mark on your music player.

So what do I think about this album then? I have been debating this for a while now, not quite sure what rating to put on there just alternating between the four and the five. I think it is good and it certainly has some qualities that should have made it better, some tracks are really good, while others are a bit genre typical. It is sometimes hard to judge an album but after playing this now an extended period and trying to learn as much as possible I would say that the four H rating is the best one because the album feels a bit much like a typical heavy metal album. There are more layers there but they are not in any way easy to find as you need headphones, a silent room and maximum concentration, well not really but you catch my drift I think.

It is a debut album and that might be one reason for the album being a bit static in form, I would think that there is potential in the additional layers rather than something adding to these tracks right now. So I would in most parts say that this is a good album but nothing more really, well made, good soundscape, the vocals are good, the songs are a bit too adherent to the rules of heavy metal making it sound a little bit too much like everything else which is something that is always a negative as we have heard it before and it just isn’t exciting again, unless done brilliantly and that is unfortunately not the case with these guys, they do it well but nothing more.

There are some really good stuff on the album though, I really like the title track which is quite good. Although the really best track on the album is the one following the title track, Evening Takes Over, a great ballad where I really think the band gives a teaser of what they are capable of doing and that is a track I love to listen to.

So in the end, a bit of a standard album for Metalville I would say. A very good album but nothing that really stands out, much like most of the music from Metalville, high quality but nothing extraordinary. Although this band might as well be able to do something like that, there are some small indications on this album. More of a show of potential rather than something really great.