Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The union that exists between self-respecting Rock lover, the perpetual admirer of all things loud and proud, is one built upon mutual trust and quality of performance. The master class offered by the gigantic gig, the album which sends out streams of pleasure and which can be felt shaking the street as the temperatures rise at the same rate as the volume switch, all these offer much compared to the single, the small dip into a vast ocean and one that feels the waves come baring down too quickly to move out of the way; it never feels like Rock when it is a single or double A Side and yet despite the arguments against it and perhaps only due to the presence of a maestro, does Communion and Saviour Machine come with reverence and esteem built in.

For Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock, the two songs represent the immediate future of the musician, the preview of what fans can expect as they line up with keen anticipation for touring both with the Midland’s Metal kings of old Judas Priest and out in their own arena of warmth and power in January; it is a preview that comes stomping all over the previously scorched ground, the earth dominated mostly by the quick single which carries Pop’s finest endeavours and growls with anger should Pop find a way through the barricade.

Both songs offering a precursor to the main events are in the lofty position of being seen as true expressions of what Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock can produce and the chance to install the tracks into the veins of the unhearing and the Rock deaf; it is too good an opportunity to miss and the double A-Side works incredibly hard to make sure the target is not just hit but breached like the walls of Jericho after the trumpet’s solo.

A swift reminder of what Rock can produce, what the guitar can sing in its favour and fortune and whilst the single remains an elusive means of carrying the full message, at least in Communion and Saviour Machine the message is loud and clear; The Temple Of Rock is to be praised.

Ian D. Hall