Temple Of Switches - Temple Of Switches

Temple Of Switches

Temple Of Switches
self-released; 2015

3.7 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

I’ve written plenty of reviews stating that artists tend to almost always sounds like the decade they grew up in. If you grew up in the late 70’s listening to classic rock bands than your band in 2016 will mostly like sound like that. Temple of Switches is another glaring example of this fact. The band consisting of Mike Monda, Joe Monda, Kevin McConnell, and Jay Heffner sound like they came straight out of the 80’s in a lot of ways. You can make an argument for late 70’s on some songs as well.

There are prog-rock elements mixed with other various sub genres that came from the 80’s. Even the singing sounds like it came from that period. It’s really hard to deny the obvious influence and at the end of the day I think a lot of people will enjoy this band.

Anyway you look at it this band delivers the good. They rock hard throughout this album and they also can play their instruments like a bunch of pros. The album is full of fleshed out songs that showcase the chemistry these guys have when playing music together.

“Desert Sands” is a good song to start things off or end things with. It’s driven by a killer bass line as the guitars provide the atmosphere. The breakdowns are certifiable prog rock and have to admit I was reminded of Spinal Tap and a bit of Black Sabbath and Meatloaf. Either way you look at it the song is quite epic and almost nine minutes long. They cram in a lot of changes and transitions within that time frame. “Calling All” has some wicked instrumental parts from everyone. The lead guitar pulls of a couple off-kilter solos and the drumming propels the songs with kinetic energy. It contains numerous breakdowns as the instruments trade off as the focal center.

On the other end of the spectrum is “Federal Offense” which is a fast paced song which catchy, interesting lyrics. It’s a heavy song and contains a very unique breakdown around the three minute mark that sound like the scene of a crime. I’m not sure if that’s what they intended but it sounded cool.

You can kind of feel through the music that these guys were having a blast making this music. It really does convey through the songs I’m pretty sure you will have a blast listening to it. ​

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