Artist: Human Temple 
   Title: Halfway To Heartache
   Label:
Escape Music

Human Temple came bursting on to the Finnish Hard Rock scene with their ‘Insomnia’ release back in 2004, which they followed up in 2010 with the stunning ‘Murder Of Crow’.  Now in 2012 Janne Hurme, Risto Tuominen, Petri Lehto, Jori Tojander and Harri Kinnunen, return along with guest Emppu Vuorenen, for their excellent new release ‘Halfway To Heartache’.

This new album takes up where 'Murder Of Crows’ left off.  This is stunning Melodic Hard Rock that will show that these Finns are a presence to be reckoned with once more.

The album gets underway with ‘I Will Follow’ and instantly the album takes you by the shoulders and shakes your very foundations, with the massive rhythm section letting way to the exploding riffs of Tuominen, before Hurme unleashes a mighty vocal attack that is the icing on this Hard Rock cake.

The blistering hard rock continues with ‘Bleeding Through’, a real tour de force from Hurme again vocally, as he pushes the boundaries of the genre into almost Melodic Metal.  This along with Tuominen’s stirring riff building show the band are taking their music to the next level.

It's power all the way with the excellent ‘Like A Beat Of A Heart’, featuring plenty of big chunky licks from Tuominen, which drive this one forward, while Hurme delivers a flawless vocal, but it’s the heady back beat of Lehto and Kinnunen that are the real foundation for this one.  Before the tempo is brought down just a touch with the thought provoking ‘Our World, Our Life’, before picking back up with the stunning ‘Almost There’, and the equally impressive ‘Run Away’.  Next up the band put their own spin on Fleetwood Mac’s classic ‘Little Lies’, giving it a much more edgy sound.  A wise man once said (a certain Mr Tony Mills) ... “if you're going to do a cover then make it your own or don’t bother doing it at all” ... and Human Temple definitely do that with this one.

It's back to the original material with ‘Because Of You’, a big slice of edgy Hard Rock worthy of the Human Temple name, although if you want a big slice of dirty rich Hard Rock, then ‘Misery’ will get the old juices really flowing.  A real meat and bones rock song that just rocks big style!

I said at the beginning that the album features Nightwish’s Emppu Vuorinen and he puts his six-string prowess down with a solo on the keyboard infused ‘Some Things Are Never Long Time Ago’.  Next up it's time to bring this stunning release to dramatic close with the stirring melodies of ‘She Talks To Angels’, which is the perfect end to another great album from these Finns and one which sets the bar high for others to follow in 2012.

 Tracklisting:

1. I Will Follow
2. Bleeding Through
3. Like A Beat Of A Heart
4. Our World, Our Time
5. Almost There
6. Run Away
7. Little Lies
8. Because Of You
9. Misery
10. Some Things Are Never Long Time Ago
11. She Talks To Angels

                  

 

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