TRACK LISTING

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1.  Intro
2.  How Long
3.  The End Of An Era
4.  Saturday Night
5.  Fallen Angel
6.  Hangin' On
7.  With You
8.  Miss Claustrophobia
9.  Scene Of Crime
10.  Lovers Sinfony-Speed
11.  Stormin' In
12.  Speed
13.  Before The Devil Knows
       You're Dead
14.  How Long
        (guitar battle version)
15.  Remember
        (bonus track for Japan)

Total playing time:  58:23

Release Date: October 11, 2011
Label: Inakustik Records

Michael Schenker - Temple of Rock

Reviewer: Chris

October 17, 2011

In the eyes on this humble writer it’s hard for Michael Schenker to do anything wrong, despite the missteps over the years. Still and all, from his early beginnings with the Scorpions, then into UFO for a tremendously successful tenure, and on to his MSG incarnations into his solo bands, Mr. Schenker has achieved a level of legendary status that some guitarists only dream of in garages and dimly-lit bars. For his first solo album since 2003’s Thank You 4 he’s pulling out an all-star appearance card and giving us Temple of Rock, which is a straight rock album in the tradition of what we’ve come to anticipate and long for from this German virtuoso.

Vocalist Michael Voss isn’t trying to outdo his band’s namesake and keeps his style as even and stable as possible. A lot of people still vying for a Macauley/Moog/Bonnet enterprise might well be waiting a long time and Voss does his absolute best to make you forget those names for just a while. He’s not incredibly resonating, that’s a fact, but he’s not a terrible choice either. In essence, he’s just a middle-road singer. Schenker’s guitar work, as usual, ascends all of the typicality and triviality, but in spots it seems as if the guitar work is underwhelming, which is especially evident in “Miss Claustrophobia”. In this regard the music suffers from some triteness and a seemingly basic plasticity that plays it safe as opposed to opening up the soda bottle and foaming all over the room. The soloing on the record is very good, also as expected, but while there are some terrific Michael Schenker moments all over the record the lyrics are painfully small and deserve a better treatment from such a main player in the game. In fact, the lyrics are the weak spot through the entire album, but I’m not so sure the point of a Michael Schenker album is the lyrical prowess, so it is what it is.

I’m so glad to hear a new record from Schenker, who has been fighting a lot of personal and professional demons over the years; he’s one of the greats from my childhood that is still going strong, albeit a bit subdued these days. Even with a host of guests through the album, including Leslie West, Carmine Appice, Paul Raymond, Michael Amott, Robin McAuley, Don Airey, Chris Slade and Neil Murray to name a few, the overall feeling is one of a very muffled enterprise. Don’t misunderstand me; this album is quite good for the simplicity of it all. “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” is one of the tracks that makes you realize Schenker is still quite capable of producing some highly brilliant songs even in the lowest key of structure. Even with all of the years and music under his illustrious belt, Michael Schenker can provide entertaining music to the degree that you understand he is always experimenting and reinventing, which is both a positive and a negative dependant on your view of his body of work. The typically 80’s rock anthem song in “Storming In” is there, even if the lyrics, as stated, are minimalistic at best. The power chords long missed are evident here and get the head nodding if you can ignore the sophomoric words over it. In the same regard, a song like “Scene of Crime” is just hard to take in with its pedestrian vocal melody, but it has a really cool solo that is memorable in itself.

While I feel this is an album to revisit now and again, it’s not a piece that will stick to your ribs, so to speak. For the Schenker fan of lengthy design, you’ll either find this record a nice addition to his discography or a longing for days past; it’s all in accordance to your musical taste I suppose. For me, simply stated, it’s a good record, not great, that has moments of precision.