COLOUR TEMPLE

I've read many good reviews about this German band and this record is the first thing I 've heard from them. COLOUR TEMPLE is not a progressive metal record, in turn it's a collection of straight hard rock/heavy metal songs. This is not a bad thing since the songwriting is outstanding, most of the tracks remain in the "song format" despite the length and the focus is the songwriting itself avoiding some musician's showing-off which is something quite common in progressive-metal. The performances are tight and the lead singer (Andy Kuntz) is excellent, his voice being some cross between Joe Elliot (Def Leppard) and Ian Gillan, great!.

As this is not real progressive metal, I can't give more than 3 stars to this disc, however in a "hard rock/heavy metal view" this record deserves one more star. If you're looking for some complex prog-metal full of time changes, intrincate passages and lots of solos I think you will be disappointed with this album, but if you're into late 80's hard-rock and metal this record is a good listen.

I haven't heard the band's later albums but what I've read about them tells me that they became more progressive in recent years, I'll definitely check them out!