Temple Of Deimos – Heading To Saint Reaper
Release Date: 18th March 2022
Label: Argonauta Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner Rock, Desert Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Doom.
FFO: Queens Of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Red Fang.
Review By: Anthony Petitt
After eight long years, the newest album from Italian desert rockers Temple Of Deimos is finally here! Entitled Heading To Saint Reaper, this record is the trio’s third full length release.
Listeners will immediately notice the heavily pronounced low-end that is prevalent throughout the record. Overall, the production on this record is a vast improvement from their previous album Work To Be Done: the guitar tones are sinister and snarling, and reverb-heavy vocals sit well over the other instruments.
The band pulls no punches on opening track Deadly Lines. The drums hammer away as guitarist/vocalist Fabio Speranza provides Josh Homme-esque lead guitar lines and haunting vocal harmonies that are too rarely heard in the stoner/doom scene. The up-tempo Deflagration Deal shines when the bass interplays with the quirky, bouncy lead guitar. The song’s steady pulse never once lets up during its brisk two-minute runtime.
The song Bad Time Choices leans into the band’s doom influences, but the hypnotic, powerful verses are somewhat let down by unremarkable choruses. The song’s driving instrumental bridge more than makes up for any other shortcomings, though, leading the listener back into the earworm that is the main riff.
Heading To Saint Reaper does an about-face in the following song Elvis Aaron Stoner, an upbeat tune featuring added instrumentation in the form of piano, lap steel, and even hand claps. The band’s effortless change from the doom rock of Bad Time Choices straight into the dark dance number of Elvis Aaron Stoner is commendable.
Next up is the sort of title track Saint Reaper Waltz, which may seem low-key compared to the two previous songs, but is a definite grower that pulls the listener into it’s trance-like 6/8 waltz. Melancholia brings back the riffage and technicality of the beginning of the record. Fans of First It Giveth by Queens of the Stone Age will notice similarities in the drums and especially in the guitars present here. Suddenly Like A Robot sounds exactly how one would expect it to: like an assembly-line of machines hard at work, ceaselessly performing their designated tasks with great precision. The fact that a song can conjure up such imagery is an accomplishment on its own.
The next couple of songs are admissible, but fail to stand out on an album otherwise filled with songs that do a good job of standing out from each other. Ultimately they are overshadowed by the final song Yawning Girl (possibly an homage to desert rock forefathers Yawning Man?). Yawning Girl is a jammy instrumental, and a phenomenal tone-shift for a final track. The band sounds focused and in sync, and the song serves as a great reverb-drenched bookend to an all-around incredibly solid release. 
(4.5 / 5)
