{"id":248448,"date":"2026-01-23T21:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248448\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T21:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:03:08","slug":"temptress-hear-review-angry-metal-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248448\/","title":{"rendered":"Temptress – hear Review | Angry Metal Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The best things in life often happen organically. Temptress began in 2019 in Dallas, Texas, as three friends casually jamming together, and they had enough natural chemistry to decide to take their alluring stoner doom to the studio. Like someone who is well-versed in the art of seduction, they appear to be working their way through each of the five senses. Their debut full-length, see, was born in 2023, but now the time has come to close your eyes and hear what Temptress has conjured up for their sophomore record.<\/p>\n

hear is both more immediate and less straightforward than its predecessor. Temptress has livened up the laid-back stoner rock of see with copious amounts of grunge. Kelsey Wilson\u2019s guitar lines are equally likely to slip into a hypnotic, looping groove as they are to burst into peppy riffs. The passages occasionally slow to a doomy plod or bear a passing resemblance to the psychedelic side of Messa. Regardless of style, much of the repetitive songwriting has been tightened across the board, making hear\u2019s average track length and total runtime noticeably shorter.<\/p>\n

\ufeffhear by Temptress<\/a><\/p>\n

hear is a concerted group effort that respects each member\u2019s individuality. All three members share mic duty, which affords variety rather than synergy because most songs have only one vocalist (with the exception of some backing vocals during the chorus of \u201cNarrows\u201d). The ethereal female croons in \u201cEdge\u201d and \u201cDownfall\u201d tend to fit the music best; however, the singing elsewhere can sound a bit flat (\u201cNow or Never,\u201d \u201cNarrows\u201d), not quite matching the passion with which they play their respective instruments. Andi Cuba\u2019s drumming has an endearing, quirky character\u2014I like that intro track \u201cInto\u201d uses only tom and bass drums, although there are small annoyances such as the overuse of syncopation (\u201cEdge\u201d) or snare drum fills (\u201cDownfall\u201d). Christian Wright takes the lead with bass guitar in outro track \u201cOut of,\u201d which I hope to hear more of in the future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Temptress is becoming adept at writing a cohesive record that keeps a live setting in mind. The first half is much more energetic, giving hear the initial impression of being front-loaded, but the back half contains additional nuance upon closer listening. \u201cBe Still\u201d and \u201cDownfall\u201d experiment with tempo shifts to overall success, save for the 30 seconds or so of dead time at the end of each track. The bookends tie hear together well as a package, with a crisp transition from \u201cInto\u201d to \u201cNarrows\u201d and \u201cOut of\u201d complementing the introduction neatly. The one song that I struggle with as a whole is \u201cNow or Never\u201d due to the deadpan vocals and repetitive lyrics, but the instruments are spirited enough that I can imagine that this would work better when performed live.<\/p>\n

Temptress comes across as a tight-knit group that retains a refreshing \u201cno expectations\u201d attitude from their early jamming days. The stoner doom and grunge work very well together to produce plenty of enjoyable licks and riffs, although the vocals are something of a mixed bag. Temptress\u2019 growth between see and hear is impressive. I\u2019d like to see them continue to refine their more subtle, contemplative songwriting approach in addition to their more straightforward, bouncy side. All in all, what I\u2019ve heard so far makes me eager to touch Temptress\u2019 next album.<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.0\/5.0
DR: 3 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Blues Funeral Recordings<\/a>
Websites: temptressofficial.bandcamp.com<\/a> | temptressofficial.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/temptressdfw<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: January 23rd, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best things in life often happen organically. Temptress began in 2019 in Dallas, Texas, as three friends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2246,9654,18329,33745,18333,156,20083,75115,133935,125421,157,111,139,69,762,763,109288,109290,144727],"class_list":["post-248448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-2246","tag-3-0","tag-american-metal","tag-blues-funeral-recordings","tag-doom-metal","tag-entertainment","tag-grunge","tag-hear","tag-jan26","tag-messa","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-stoner-doom","tag-stoner-metal","tag-temptress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}