Deliverance

This band clearly had a LOT to get off their chests after their 9-year hiatus. 2017's Into The Glorious Battle was something of a rebirth for Cryonic Temple - heralding in a new era (with the opening track being appropriately titled "The Beginning Of A New Era"). This revitalized version of the band resulted in a sound that was more digital, more sheeny, more...insincere than ever. To match the sound, the lyrics also changed from the typical knights/dragons/metal fayre to a sci-fi concept story...which is never totally clarified! ITGB had some gems, and certainly displayed their penchant for a catchy chorus or two. Unfortunately, the energy levels felt dipped and there was a sense of urgency or vibrancy missing. This brand new effort, Deliverance, suffers from exactly the same issue. It actually feels like a direct follow-on from the previous album, both in style and theme.

I wouldn't be surprised if the tracks from Deliverance were just rejects from ITGB. After all, we're talking 28 tracks from just two albums released within a year of each other. This new record gave me the exact same feeling as the previous one - that of underwhelming satisfaction. Initially, I was pleased at the number of up-tempo numbers and instantly catchy hits - but that vague sense of absence ate away at me slowly. Let's be honest, this album didn't need to start with a 2.5 minute intro when the first minute of "Rise Eternally Beyond" is an acoustic intro anyway. If you haven't fallen asleep by the time the opening track kicks in, you'll be treated to a pleasant but inoffensive power metal standard with a strangely low-energy refrain and the worst ending in the band's catalogue. Vocalist and relative newcomer Mattias Lilja sounds, frankly, bored. Fortunately, the rest of the band have upped their game over the past 12 months. The drums now sound present, and even bassist Roland Westbom has some shining moments.

I promise I do actually like this album - otherwise, it would have received a much lower score. So what does Deliverance get right? Occasionally, there is a change in attitude and the band really put the pedal to the metal, such as the title-track or "Pain & Pleasure". This ups the momentum of the album and showcases some much-welcomed heavy riffage. However on these tracks, it sounds like there is a guest singer, though this is never explained in the inlet. If it IS Mattias, then why can't he sound this hungry for the rest of the album? The ethereal keyboards are omnipresent and successfully add to the celestial atmosphere, especially on the '80s inspired numbers like "End Of Days" or "Through The Storm". Despite the general low-energy vibe of this record, some up-tempo numbers make an impact, like the driving "Knights Of The Sky" and the soaring "Starchild". Unfortunately, they suffer from poor melody writing - as does the majority of the album. Most of the choruses are just the same hook repeated 4 times, with little in the ways of modulation or development. If the melodies were more vibrant or higher in pitch, this wouldn't be much of an issue.

Where Deliverance really shines is where the tempo slows down a tad. I'm not talking about the ballads, because Cryonic Temple proved on ITGB they don't really shine in that department ("This War Is Useless" was genuinely moving, but the other two were boring as sin). Both "Loneliest Man In Space" and "Swansong Of The Last Emperor" are supreme dips in quality which deplete the energy of the record. No, the cuts I mean are the likes of "Blood & Shame" and the semi-title-song "Temple Of Cryonics": hard-hitting riff-machines with martial rhythms and a menacing spirit. Aside from them, the other mid-tempo numbers like "Under Attack" make clear that this is the area of their songwriting the Swedes should focus on. Deliverance is recommended only to fans of new-era Cryonic Temple. The ethereal atmosphere is palpable, but the songwriting leaves something to be desired. Seeing as all 28 of their new songs quite clearly came out of the same writing session, time has yet to reveal where the Swedish power metallers can go. For now, enjoy the pleasing, catchy choruses of this record as background noise. Decent quality background noise, though.

There is a long held stereotype within the metal world that one of its more consonant and accessible sub-genres, namely power metal, is a monolithic synthesis of hook-driven, flashy 80s influenced fair with a faster tempo and fantastical to the point of cartoonish lyrical subjects. While the charge of excess is one that any variant of metal would openly celebrate, the notion of a one-dimensional approach is a laughable one when the number of bands encountered goes beyond four or five. Of particular note is the somewhat lighter and prog-influenced variation that one might refer to as Sci-Fi metal, namely a subset of the Euro power metal revival dealing predominantly with space travel and featuring a spacey, almost ethereal combination of ambient keyboards and a lighter shade on the Helloween approach that was pioneered to a large extent by Stratovarius' earlier 1990s output, and 1992's Twilight Time in particular. This sound was further developed and given an even lighter and more cosmic twist by the subsequent efforts of outfits like the short-lived Portuguese symphonic outfit Oratory, as well as Russia's Ghosthill on their first two LPs and the ongoing, 80s New Wave infused offerings of Keldian.

Perhaps one of the more unlikely candidates to adopt this lighter and loftier approach is Sweden's Cryonic Temple, a band that was better known during the latter days of the millennial power metal revival as a swords and sorcery outfit after the likes of Steel Attack and The Storyteller, with maybe occasional interludes into social commentary. Nevertheless, following a long period of studio silence after the modern, groove infused flop that was their 4th studio offering Immortal, that is where long founder and guitarist Esa Ahonen and his newly recruited lineup found themselves when 2017's Into The Glorious Battle came into being. Though there was an unmistakable familiarity to the game of speed metal infused majesty and noodling guitar leads that characterized said album, there was a notably spacier and more symphonic atmosphere afoot, one that played in quite well with the outtake to the final battle scene of Star Wars: Rogue One that was the album art. The biggest departure in sound, however, came in vocalist Mattias Lilja, who had a deeper and more nuanced vocal delivery that was about as far removed from Johan "Glen Metal" Johansson's wild, Dickinson-inspired banshee wails that many core fans of the old days haven't accepted.

With a cover more befitting Tron: Legacy than anything in the Star Wars franchise, one might think that Cryonic Temple's quick follow up in Deliverance would change things up a tad bit, but overall it plays things very close to where they were a year prior, so much that one might rightly speculate that this material was written during the same sessions as the previous album. It's naturally not a full out carbon copy, as Lilja does expand upon his somewhat mid-ranged, moderately gravely croon to include a bit more attitude, not to mention a commendable attempt at channeling the iconic Halford shriek during the chorus of the title song "Deliverance". Likewise, the harder-edged speeder "Pain And Pleasure" goes back to the good old days of In Thy Power by laying on the riffs a bit heavier and also features a guest lead vocalist who sounds a good bit closer to Glen Metal's bygone gritty shouts. Yet as an overall package, this album relates back to its immediate predecessor in much the same fashion that their first three albums did to each other, emphasizing a degree of stylistic consistency and precision that make it all but impossible for anyone who liked Into The Glorious Battle to dislike this one.

It's a rather curious thing, but in spite of being dominated by this atmospheric feeling of floating in zero gravity amid the stars, this is an album that wants for little in the impact department. Following the shimmering strings and thematic beauty that rounds out the introductory instrumental, Cryonic Temple grasps back into the late 80s well of Helloween and comes out with a rather obvious though unique nod to "Eagle Fly Free" in "Rise Eternally Beyond", complete with a bass vs. guitar vs. drums solo duel at its climax. Similarly enthralling excursions through flashy, speed metal territory emerge in the riff happy Judas Priest homage "Knights Of The Sky" and the warp speed thrill ride "Starchild". Likewise, when things take on a more mid-paced flavor as on "Under Attack" and "Through The Storm", there is a strong, chunky guitar assault that manages to punch through the airy keyboards and gives things a bit of an Accept feel, while more keyboard-dominated mid-tempo anthems such as "Temple Of Cryonics" and "End Of Days" deliver some truly massive, hook-happy choruses and see Lilja putting a bit more gusto into his vocal delivery. Truth be told, minus the somewhat sappy and dispensable ballad "Loneliest Man In Space", there isn't really an outright weak moment to be found here.

During an interview for The Black Sabbath Story Volume II: 1978-1992, the now departed legend Cozy Powell noted something along the lines of every fan having an era of Sabbath (of which there were many by 1992, let alone after) that meant something special to him/her, implying that no one era of said band was necessarily better or worse than the rest. While many die-hard Ozzy and Dio fans would fight to the death against this notion, there is a certain wisdom to it that is applicable to Cryonic Temple's evolution as a band. Some will likely continue to see this band's name as implying a throwback to the days of yore when chivalry and jousting duels were the norm that was cryogenically frozen and then revived in the early 21st century, which was the gist of their sound prior to the release of Immortal, but this need not imply that there is no room for a new interpretation of a lone person from the past being frozen by the same means and then awakening to a different world in the distant future where the conquest of the stars is underway. For those who are capable of treasuring the past and also hoping for the future of power metal, Deliverance is the right album at the right time, whether the implied year be 1099 or 2199.

I was pretty hyped about Into The Glorious Battle in 2017, after all it was Cryonic Temple‘s first album after an absence of 9 years, and 12 years after their last good album. The Swedish power metal force has been around for a few years in the early ’00s, putting out three immaculate melodic power metal records back to back, ultimately failing in 2008 with a turn towards a modern sound and a change of vocalists. Into The Glorious Battle made this slip undone, featuring a whole lot of classic power metal tracks and the energy we were used to from classics such as 2005’s In Thy Power. In retrospect, the album surely could have been better in parts, and original vocalist Glen Metal’s voice still is sorely missed, but overall it was a way for Cryonic Temple of getting back on track.

Just one year after going back to the roots and appreciating their strengths, much in the vein of Hammerfall‘s mistakes eventually reconciled by 2016’s Built To Last, the Swedes return with Deliverance. To me, this was a sign of newfound energy and a creative will. Oh, was I wrong.

Much like any other Cryonic Temple record, Deliverance is abundant with catchy choruses and speedy power metal melodies. That’s pretty much all this album has in common with previous CT releases. When I listened to the album for the first time, I couldn’t believe my ears. On Into The Glorious Battle, I was positively raving about singer Mattias Lilja and how much energy he brought to the band’s sound; I even saw him as a lesser Glen Metal. What he is pulling off on Deliverance can’t be called anything but a travesty. His vocals are suddenly monotonous, colorless and drab, with any hint of energetic singing all but a glimpse at the horizon of sleepy singing.

Opening track “Rise Eternally Beyond” (starting after three minutes of a humdrum instrumental) sounds nothing like Cryonic Temple. The band’s trademark, the energy and power in both music and vocals are utterly lost. It sounds like this was recorded with the whole band high on sleeping pills. Proof of that, and not making it better, is the sloppy recording/mixing (half a word missing at 2:50, if you want to check). If I didn’t know better, I’d say Mattias Lilja aged about 25 years between 2017’s album and 2018’s.

Hey, if the music is good, the singer can’t ruin too much, no? First of all: yes, Mattias’ singing is so terribly monotonous, it ruins every track. Second of all, the music isn’t even good. It pains me to write this as I adore CT‘s first three albums and loved Into The Glorious Battle. But it has to be said, each track is incredibly unimaginative and shiftless. It’s really weird to be honest, as songwriter Esa Ahonen has been around with the band since its beginnings and used to be an absolute master. All in all, Deliverance sounds like a bunch of tracks too weak to put on Into The Glorious Battle.

The same is true for the production. Another conundrum – Deliverance has been produced by Pelle Saether, the same guy who did the band’s first three masterpieces. These days however the guitars lack any punch whatsoever, the drums sound like made of cardboard and there are sloppinesses like the mentioned found all over the album.

There isn’t a single good track on Deliverance. The title track, channeling some Judas Priest vibes, comes close to being a good track. I have to mention “Pain And Pleasure” as well, which sounds way different. I didn’t get any information by the label, but it very much sounds like there’s a guest singer here. Or Mattias woke up from his pill sleep? In this song, there’s energy.

Cryonic Temple are probably as disappointed about this record as I am. The sound, the vocals, all screams “hey, we don’t really care”. Which is a major letdown as I had the feeling we could still expect great things from this band after their resurrection. The band’s never gonna admit it, but I hope this is really just a bunch of leftovers from last year’s sessions (I mean, how else do you write and record 14 songs in under a year), or Esa Ahonen didn’t really try. So I hope they will take a bit more time for the next album and improve on songwriting, vocal enthusiasm and production sound. It’s absurd how every aspect of this record is botched.

written for www.metalpower.blog