My Friend Lonely

In 1989, after the band Znowhite disbanded, Greg Fulton [guitars and song writer], Scott Schafer [bass] and John Slattery [drums] formed Cyclone Temple which in my opinion had a short but interesting carrier. This is their second album which came out in 1994, after the Thrash scene already died and the Grunge Rock conquered over the world. This album sounds much different from most of the Old-School Thrash. In this case, the vocalist is the leader, not the riffs which usually being the main actor in Thrash Metal, and the vocals only supports it.

All the songs here were written by the guitarist Greg Fulton. In my opinion it's a very high effort for one man to write such an awesome album by himself. He wrote all these groovy melodies and the sharp lyrics by himself, and it's pretty noticeable that he worked much more on the melodies than the riffs. The riffs aren't dominant and the vocals are much more intense, I'm pretty sure that he first wrote the lyrics and melodies and only later wrote the riffs and solos [which played very rarely in this album, I don't remember that I heard more than three or four leads in all that album] only for backing up the vocals. This is actually very outstanding for me because most of the Thrash albums I heard [and I heard a lot] were held mostly by the riffs, this is what makes this album feel maybe a little bit more mainstreamed, though the band were always in the underground.

The vocalist Sonny De Lucia sounds like Philip Anselmo [Pantera] but softer.
He fits very well the melodies which sounds like a pure combination between Grunge Rock and Thrash Metal [Down The Drain is the best example for that].
There are some experimental sections here and there which chilling out a bit the heavy perception of this album and some Hardcore based vocals [especially in the catchy Drug Of The Masses] which sounds groovy and reminds me Pantera from the 'Cowboys From Hell' era. All in all the vocals are more intense than most of the Thrash albums out there, because here the vocalist is really singing with tunes and not reciting the lyrics to fit well the riffs.

This album contains 5 songs from the former EP and 3 fillers which doesn't really keep on interest but has some good moments . Whats makes this album worthy if you don't have their EP is that here they got a new and better vocalist, and better production.

Well, it isn't the regular Thrash album because it combines [in a good way] some other styles into it [Hardcore, a bit Grunge Rock and maybe a bit Groove metal] and it isn't based on the guitar riffs, so if you are looking for some catchy and kicking asses riffs, you won't find much here because as I said, it's pretty clear that the vocals are the lead theme. Don't think this album doesn't sounds like Thrash and that it's a poor imitation for it. This album is a really kicking ass Thrash which doesn't going too far away from the old school style of Thrash and if you looking for something a BIT different than the regular formula- you must get this awesome album.