WETWORK — Temple of Red (review)

WETWORK — Temple of Red album cover Album · 1998 · Technical Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Temple of Red" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian metal act Wetwork. The album was released through Musty Music Productions in 1998. After this album Wetwork would change musical style to a technical death metal style, but that´s not at all what "Temple of Red" is about.

On this album we´re presented to an adventurous mix of thrash metal, alternative metal and a couple of semi-progressive elements too. While there are heavier moments on the album, there are as many sections on the album featuring clean guitars. Those sections occasionally cast a nod towards goth rock acts like The Mission and the Sisters of Mercy. The vocalist has a voice and singing style that is so close to the voice and singing style of Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) that it´s almost eerie and therefore a Megadeth mention is inevitable.

"Temple of Red" is a concept album featuring 14 tracks and a total playing time of 27:56 minutes. Half the tracks are shorter interludes with narration that explains the storyline, which features an anti-religion theme. While the story is as such rather banale and the narration occasionally sounds a bit forced, it´s like the concept part of the album has grown on me the more I listen to the album. The relatively amaturish sound production brings my enthusiasm down again, but there is something charming about the album´s atmosphere and the musicianship is decent too.

On many parameters "Temple of Red" is an imature and amaturish release and the fact that the band didn´t continue down this musical path, is probably further proof, that they weren´t very successful with the album. But I´ll go against the grain here and say that I personally really enjoy the album. There´s something about the dark atmosphere, and the adventurous approach to writing music that´s refreshing and interesting. You can´t really pin down what genre tags would be the right ones for "Temple of Red". For that it´s too diverse. That´s of course not a quality on it´s own, but there´s something irresistibly charming about the unique sound of the album that I greatly enjoy. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.
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