The realm of stoner doom and heavy psychedelic rock is littered with bland, cookie-cutter bands who are content on playing the same riffs or fear straying off of the "worship" path. It takes something wildly unique or refreshing to breakthrough the fuzzy mold that the genres have created for themselves since the days of Deep Purple and Saint Vitus and to more modern examples like Sleep or Electric Wizard. For the Melbourne, Australia quartet of Holy Serpent, they have managed to escape the hallucinatory norms of their genres within three, short years of existence.
Metal Injection is lucky enough to bring the North American premiere of Holy Serpent's debut, full-length album, Temples. The five-track effort melds elements of the aforementioned stoner doom and psych rock with and punk nuances in alchemical majesty, creating a fuzzy haze of distorted riffs and crash cymbals that breathes new life into an overworked brand of metal. They upped the tempos from their self-titled EP that was released in 2014 and brought a heavier tone that is much more aggressive than anything they have written. This new formula culminates in an exhilarating listening experience that is certain to cure any mind-altering itch you might have.
Pre-orders for physical copies can be made through the Riding Easy Records label and digital pre-orders can be found on Holy Serpent's Bandcamp page. The band will be going on a short Australian tour in honor of Temples' release in October. The dates can be found below along with the stream of the new album!
