I’ve long been a fan of guitar legend Michael Schenker, from UFO onwards. Famed for his fluid melodic playing style and that Iconic Flying V, he has had a colourful career producing some great music and some rubbish too. Temple of rock is almost a return to form and if he builds on this album he’ll be back on top of melodic rocks pile again. I quite like the production of this album; clear but not over produced which brings some feel to the songs and every instrument is clear. He also has the solid rhythm foundation of Rarebell and Buchholz (scorpion’s fame) to back him up.
The album kicks off with a short instrumental before kicking in with “Where the Wild Winds Blow” a solid enough rock song with Schenker on form both acoustically and electrically. Also of note is vocalist Doogie White who seems to be the vocalist that is best suited to Schenker’s sound. “Lord of the Lost and Lonely” is a typical Schenker song with big melodic riffs based on vocal lines and a solo of pure melody. While some of the album is what you would call typical for the genre it is highly enjoyable and despite my current taste in music being aimed towards the brutal dark side I still enjoyed this album including some of the cheesy chorus’s and titles (rock n roll symphony) telling us the music we live, the times of our lives it is played by an extremely talented and experienced band.
Schenker seemed to be having the time of his life listening to his playing on this album. So despite some cheesy stuff and obvious rock n roll clichés I would say if you want a change and some glorious musicianship then give Schenker’s Temple of rock album a chance. There are some great riffs here which I could imagine that would sound awesome elsewhere. “Temple of the Holy” through to “Bridges we have Burned” provides a lull in the album; 3 songs that have the same feel and tempos forcing the album to drag a bit. It does picks up again on “Because you Lied”, albeit briefly. The closing track “Faith” is an acoustic number with Don Dokken (on vocals) is well written and performed, but let’s hope that the rumoured collaboration between these two produces more excitement than this track.
So Mr. Schenker needs to build on this and the world could be your oyster again. His lead playing is superb on this album and yet he has not overdone it, so that attention is not taken away from the songs and other musicians. I feel kind of bad not mentioning Wayne Findlay the second guitarist/Keyboardist on this album but it’s a Schenker album. So I’m giving this solid album a 7.
Meathook Mike, HMS
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