Twin Temple – ‘God Is Dead’

Cast yourself back in time to the age of the Twilight Zone in black and white, grab yourself a martini and revel in the haunted retro reinvention of Twin Temple. Their satanic, sex-positive take on the late fifties vocal harmony sound has led to spots supporting Behemoth and Danzig, and ‘God Is Dead’ is the perfect soundtrack to a midnight halloween party, exorcism or seance. 

Don’t let the title of this album fool you, there aren’t any secret messages if you play it backwards. As with their previous two albums, the lyrics are deliciously sacrilegious (see opener ‘Burn Your Bible’) but in a very melodramatic, technicolour way – Alexandra and Zachary James channel Elvira at every turn. Advance single drop ‘Let’s Have a Satanic Orgy’ is Dean Martin’s ‘Sway’ in a black silk wrapping with bats flapping in time to the marimba rhythm. There’s a fabulous Amy Winehouse-meets-Emanuela Hutter twist in Alexandra’s vocals, draping  a glamorous veil over every note. 

It’s another single drop, ‘Be A Slut’, which is perhaps the most intriguing song in the album. Imagine a subversion of the Supreme’s ‘Baby Love’ and a power move against the purity culture of the gospel scene and Motown era, and you’re halfway there. “Be a slut, do whatever you want,” Alexandra croons in a celebration of owning your own body. There’s plenty of tongue in cheek humour and unflinching occult references throughout the album which provoke a wry smile and a need to rewind back ten seconds to check whether she did actually say what you thought she said. In fact, each song demands multiple consecutive listens; firstly, to check the lyrics and then to appreciate the richness of Twin Temple’s creations. Taking a sound dismissed by all sides in the modern era, and mixing it with a punk attitude isn’t anything new – The Ramones covered ‘Baby I Love You’ in 1980, after all – but ‘God Is Dead’ works incredibly well when it’s shrouded in lurid imagery about the antichrist. 

Similarly, this is an album you can enjoy in so many different ways. It’s got a love of the genres of punk, metal and doo-wop woven into every second, even down to the vintage fuzz on the recording. The duo have captured the lush, chocolatey smoothness of the vocal group sound but with a postmodern take on the genre. While there are still plenty of modern vocal groups making records with a traditional energy, Twin Temple have taken the vintage style without the vintage values and made it their own. It’s a record that spins nicely in the background to make your day feel more like an episode of ‘I Love Lucy’ (albeit one where Lucy sacrifices a goat in an arcane ritual), or it’s one you can analyse to satisfy your need for social commentary in both the metal and vintage revival scenes. 

‘God Is Dead’ is very much a continuation of Twin Temple’s previous two albums. There isn’t a sudden swerve into the present or a shift in theme. This may not be the record that makes them sit more comfortably with the fans who’d come to see Ghost, who they toured with last year. However, there will always be a place in music for someone making music that doesn’t fit neatly into a genre, or a band trying to do their own thing without having a specific barcode stuck to them. If you want gorgeous tunes that pay homage to the past while definitely not being something you can play in front of your conservation elderly relatives, then this is it. Throw yourself into the retro theatrics, own your own body and your listening, and enjoy every song on this gorgeously dark album. 

KATE ALLVEY