Cyclone Temple - My Friend Lonely (1994)

Having already had my expectations castrated by the band's debut I Hate Therefore I Am, and then the liberated, necrotic organs of my sex trampled upon the grass by the ensuing Building Errors in the Machine EP, I had absolutely no faith in Cyclone Temple whatsoever. That they even managed to release a second full-length is nothing short of a miracle, but there's a catch. The ill-titled My Friend Lonely is merely a re-recording of the ENTIRE Building Errors in the Machine EP, with a few extra tracks added, on a third label. Complete with one of the most retarded album covers I've ever seen in 35 years on this Earth, this 'new' material was surely going to win back audiences far and wide to the band's brand of street thrash and one of the most mediocre James Hetfield parodies in history.

Okay, so maybe not. I'll give Cyclone Temple that the newly recorded versions of "Hate Makes Hate", "Down the Drain", "Me, Myself and I", "Drug of the Masses" and "Killing Floor" at least benefit from a superior studio mix here, which almost compares with the production quality of the debut, at least running flush with what the few fans of that would have expected on a true follow-up. Perhaps De Lucia heard his own voice on the prior recordings, because he actually dials back the Billy/Hetfield style and sounds a little more like Sacred Reich's Phil Rind on several of the tracks like "Down the Drain". It makes the tracks slightly more tolerable, but the music itself isn't any better.

There are a trio of actual new tracks on the album, the first of which is "My Friend Lonely". The intro begins with a reggae lick, totally unnecessary, but hey, this is the fuckin' 90s man, we gotta branch out if we're to survive! Well, this might always have worked for the Bad Brains or 24-7 Spyz, but it's thankfully short here. The rest of the song sucks, because the riffs are just boring Prong-like chugging and horrible, emotional vocals that are all over the place, with some truly awkward lyrics and delivery in the chorus. When the guy gets all gritty and bluesy in the later verse, try to not laugh at how pathetic it becomes. "Comfortably Superficial" does feature a few half-decent riffs in there, with a nice melodic tone to the chugging, but the vocals suck and spoil the rest. The lead-in riff to the final new original, "Time Heals All" reminds me of a chugged out mutation to the intro in Flotsam & Jetsam's "No Place for Disgrace", and then the song lapses into groovy bass and De Lucia's dirty, digging Soul voice. It's probably the worst of the three, and the band breaking out their rap metal track "The Law of Relativity" once more as a 'hidden' attachment was probably not going to help matters much.

Hearing My Friend Lonely is like seeing a great man you once knew, deep in his cups and drunk out of his liver and kidneys at the seediest local dive you can find. How has he fallen this far? Should you offer him some change for a cup of coffee? Drive him over to a local rehab? End his misery with a slash of a pocket knife, quick clean getaway and a mock concern call to the EMTs? My solution for us to help Cyclone Temple is to go out and gather up every copy of this disc in existence, and commit it to an incinerator. This record absolutely fucking blows, and it's no wonder at all that the band were not going to outlive it for very long. The fact that sounds like rap and reggae were appearing here, even briefly, is proof positive that the band were succumbing to the outside pressure of the 90s cultural hodgepodge, and perhaps they would have been better served by starting another new band to explore these options. Not that this outfit was ever really worth saving, mind you, they'd been weak from the start, but compared to what is on this disc, even I Hate Therefore I Am seems like a job well done. The recording of these tracks may sound better than the EP, but the vocals are actually even worse since they've become clearer. The newer songs are tripe and this record is a complete waste of effort and time.

Verdict: Epic Fail [1.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/cyclonetemple

Cyclone Temple - Building Errors in the Machine EP (1993)

Cyclone Temple's debut I Hate Therefore I Am actually received a reasonable level of critical acclaim, which is unfortunate since it rather sucked, but obviously things were not going so well within the band's own camp. Relativity was snapped up by Sony, and in the process they dumped the Combat records artists, so this Chicago band was just one of the many victims to society's shift out of thrash metal and into the bleak 90s realm of grunge and alternative rock like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. So this EP was issued through another label. Also, vocalist Troch took a walk after the full-length, and the band brought in Sonny De Lucia to replace him.

Normally I'd be excited when a singer I didn't care for took his exit papers, but De Lucia is hardly much better. He essentially tries to perform a mix of Chuck Billy and James Hetfield, and tries a little too hard, sounding constipated through a large chunk of this EP. The riffs for most of Building Errors in the Machine are pure thrash, so in a sense the band might have thought to return to the (sadly unheralded) glory days of Act of God, the final album from their previous band Znöwhite. It's not much cause for excitement though, because though they are played in a similar style to Greg Fulton's previous albums, they seem a little crisper and deliver far less impact. More importantly, they're just not very catchy...at all.

"Hate Makes Hate" opens with a generic, rolling chug similar and then a generic descending chord pattern that we'd all heard a thousand times in various metal songs. The groovy verse rhythm is complete crap, and de Lucia sounds like Hetfield trying to get down like James Brown. "Me, Myself & I" earns no points for its cliche title, nor for the incredibly average riffs and Chuck Billy-like vocals over the verse thrust. "Down the Drain" showed a little potential. In a different time and place, these riffs might have worked with better tone, and I kind of liked the melody in the chorus. "Killing Floor" just sounds like the band took an S.O.D. or Anthrax mosh tune and ramped it up a little, with Hetfield vocals, and "Drug of the Masses" is a huge embarrassment, as the band have basically stolen the amazing breakdown riff from Metallica's "Damage, Inc." and tried to incorporate it as the main verse rhythm in this song.

But what's worse is "The Law of Relativity", where the band decided to flex a little of the Chicago inner city muscle and incorporate some rap alongside the normal thrashing. Now, I don't have an innate opposition to rap/metal or rap/rock. If it was performed well, I'd be accepting of it, and I once even dabbled in this area myself. This track only uses the rap-like vocals in the verse, and then switches to a funk-vocal briefly before the abortion of an emotional climax, but it's enough to make for the ultimate, depressing end to a weak release. The half-decent riffing storm that erupts near the close of the song comes far too late. Why wouldn't you put this up front? The end itself is the singer lamely shouting something like 'mastahbatin', ejaculatin' big fat zero'. Are you boys for real? This sounds like a band that have consigned themselves to death.

I was really hoping, what with the new singer, that Cyclone Temple had made some proper adjustments to the formula from I Hate Therefore I Am, and that I'd be hearing more of what I loved so much in their previous band. This material was clearly not going to help turn the tide of the ever-changing musical landscape of the 90s, and probably was not worthy of release in any capacity. What's worse, they will actually re-record these tracks for the second album...

Verdict: Epic Fail [2/10]

http://www.myspace.com/cyclonetemple

Cyclone Temple - I Hate Therefore I Am (1991)

It was a major disappointment to hear that Chicago's Znöwhite had broken up after just a pair of EPs and a single full-length album, because Act of God had been perfection and the band was one of the most promising in US thrash. Apocalyptic, barbaric hammering riff juggernauts are hard to come by, especially with a frenzied female vocalist, and I was truly looking forward to more. Well, the musical world was not yet done with Greg Fulton and Scott Schafer, who took the last Znöwhite drummer John Slattery with them and went on to produce the equally inanely named band Cyclone Temple, who scored a deal early with Relativity and managed to develop a little more buzz than their earlier outfit.

The vocals were handled by Brian Troch, previously of Hammeron, who had actually also joined Znöwhite before the decision to start anew was made. He's got a far more Soul-ful voice than Nicole Lee or Debbie Gunn, bluesy and silky and emotive, but also rather dull and bland across the riffing. The intention was obviously to dial down the hostility of the members' alma mater to attain accessibility. Unfortunately, this move also cost the band just about everything I enjoyed about them. The riffs are largely the same battering, chunky force Fulton had mastered for the prior incarnation, some sounding perhaps a little too similar to Znöwhite, as if they were recycled from an Act of God follow-up that never saw the light of the post-apocalyptic day. Very often here, these are the ONLY element of the music that even hinges on entertaining, because the vocalist and the lyrics are awkward and embarrassing through the 52 minutes.

This band has often got a reputation for being 'intelligent' thrash, but let me assure you, this is anything but. The lyrics are heavily based on social issues with a more emotive slant than the nuclear warfare, disease, and hostility exhibited by the band's earlier visage. Unfortunately, they are cheesy and cliche ridden, and with the delivery of Troch in place, they seem like a bad public service announcement for inner city kids. The intention is noble, of course, and the band takes on issues like suicide ("Why") and religious fanaticism ("In God We Trust"), which many thrash bands had been doing for years before this, it's just the way the net is cast out over some of Fulton's decent, pummeling riffs that drags the album down well below the level of mediocrity to the 'don't touch me there' pile.

The slow to get anywhere "Why" opens the album, and it's almost choked to death by dull ass clean guitars and meandering, slower thrash chops, until it finally picks up just after the minute mark to a galloping Fulton rhythm which gives some hope. As soon as the vocals arrive, I was taken back, for they had a gruff emotion to them which seemed like a more emotional tangent to Chuck Billy of Testament...only they become annoying very quickly through lyrics like:

Why Why Why can't I be me
Why Why Smothered from reality
Scream Scream Someone listen to me
Scream Scream Pay attention to me

Now, you're probably thinking, most thrash metal has pretty bad lyrics, so what? Let me correct you: that's not true, it's not an excuse, it never has been, and it's not acceptable here either. Cyclone Temple probably don't have the worst lyrics for the genre at the time, but they come off so fussy and oblivious that I had a hard time swallowing the heaviness Fulton was still trying to churn out below. 'Pay attention' to the singing of the last line, where Troch switches to a shrill register that sounds hilariously out of place here, and it becomes evident that this song went to waste, like so many others on this album. "Sister (Until We Meet Again)" might tug at the heart strings more successfully, as a lament for a passed relative or lover, and the riffs are even more Znöwhite thank the previous song, and Troch attempts a more ghostly range with his vocals. It works for the verse, and seems to soar over the chorus as well, until he overdoes the Sister I'm in pain line to try and put more soul into it.

The album continues much in this fashion, with a few good lines of vocals and then some that are simply lame sounding. "Words Are Just Words" has a decent descending melody in the bridge, which sputters out into a sliding octave chord pattern, but the placement of the lyrics again ruin the track's credibility, especially the I would walk a thousand miles if you asked me to cliche. Oh my god, my heart is broken. You're a fucking thrasher amigo! What is this, an after school special or a bloody thrash record? "Public Enemy" passes muster due to the riffing and gang vocals, which are totally Znöwhite, and survives the vocals, but I'm not sure "In God We Trust" makes it out alive, despite a nice riff break near the close. The title track metes out about 2 minutes of clean guitars and more 'soulful' singing, and I would have actually enjoyed the vocal melody of the chorus if it weren't spitting out such hopeful drivel as: Why do we turn away from the things we don't understand, why do we close our heart when someone else needs a helping hand. Surely we could tackle an important subject like racism with a little more than a six year old girl's pleading?

"March for Me Die for Me" is a war anthem akin to "War Machine" from Act of God, and the riffs do in fact seem to partially return to that era. It's one of the least embarrassing tracks on I Hate Therefore I Am, and "Born to Lose" also shows a little promise with the intricate, mute chugging riff that accompanies the solo. The closer "Silence So Loud" is very adept musically, and this is probably the exact type of track I would have loved to hear with Nicole Lee or Debbie Gunn singing, but Troch doesn't botch it up that badly. In the end, these last three tracks in succession are probably the best stretch of the album, though none are good enough to stand out to memory or illicit a desire to return to this.

I can understand the desire for change, I just wish it hadn't come at the expense of an amazing band like Znöwhite. To be fair to Cyclone Temple, this debut is nowhere near as god-awful as the releases that follow it. There are decent ideas dwelling through the record, and a good chunk of the riffs are worthy of head-banging. The bass and drums are good, and the mix of the album was clearer and less threatening than Act of God, but then that's one of the things I so loved. The Soul-ful shift to Troch's vocals is very often cheeky and corny, especially when the guy's given so many shit lyrics to spit across the microphone, and the entire effort feels fairly moody and processed. In the end, it comes down to a collection of songs that I have no real inclination to ever listen to, and a few that go beyond this to the precipice of suck, thanks to the vocals and juvenile, 'heart felt' lyrics.

Verdict: Fail [4/10] (why must I hurt this way)

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