Electric Temple have released their very first single, the rockingly exciting Big Black Hole. The band is the brainchild of Tony Childs and features a heavyweight lineup of W.A.S.P. bassist Mike Duda, Ace Frehley drummer Matt Starr and MetalTalk favourite Andrew Freeman.
“I was going through a rough patch in my life the last few years where a lot of dark things were happening around me and to me,” Tony Childs told MetalTalk. “I needed a cathartic way to deal with it. So, by osmosis, I started creating music in a proper old-school Metal style.
“It was evident that it brought me back to my youth when hard rock and Heavy Metal became my religion, and it still saves me today. So, Electric Temple was born out of a need to express myself artistically, a place where I could ‘worship’ freely and share my mantra Rock Is Religion.”
Tony Childs and Mike Duda go back to the Shanghai days. The Connecticut band released their debut album, Take Another Bite, in 1989. Matt Starr is another Connecticut native, and all three were involved in the local scene before attaining global success with their respective bands.
Childs told MetalTalk that Andrew Freeman, Last In Line, has been on his radar for some years. “It was a no-brainer for me to ask these accomplished musicians to be an integral part of Electric Temple,” Childs says, “and rekindle that East Coast comradery.”
Electric Temple will release a five track EP on 24 August 2024. The songs were written by Tony and honed by Andrew. Bassist Sean McNabb helped on some tracks, while Mike Duda was on tour with his W.A.S.P.
Childs says the music will pay homage to a time in his youth when bands like Sabbath, Dio, Priest, Leppard, and Alice Cooper had a profound effect on him and shaped his musical sensibilities. This was “a time before Metal bands had little or no musical boundaries and genres were blurred.”
Electric Temple plans to support the EP release in the next few months, so keep your eyes peeled.
There deserves to be some excitement around the release of the first track, Big Black Hole, as this suggests that there should be much more exciting news coming out.
If their mission is to ignite the passion in the hearts of all who embrace that old-school rock and roll spirit, then this is a mighty fine first step.
Big Black Hole from Electric Temple is available from here.
