HARLAN CAGE
Temple Of Tears
Atenzia Records, 2002

The always reliable duo Larry Greene and Roger Scott Craig is after three years since the previous album "Forbidden Colors" here with the fourth effort from their band Harlan Cage. There is no doubt that they are very good at what they do, the pomp flavoured AOR style that they have, but this is the weakest effort so far. They have basically made the same album over and over again. Maybe one too many times? It worked great before and that's because there was enough great songs to keep things together. This time there just isn't. This time the songs are only good.
"Any Port In The Storm" and "Wooden Cross" are two of the better songs on "Temple Of Tears" having all the well known trademarks from Harlan Cage with big keyboards from Roger Scott Craig and the characteristic voice of Larry Greene. "On The Nickel" and "Sin City" are two songs definitely not up to par with anything they have done so far. "Just A Face In The Rain" might stand out as the best new track on this album, but at the same it also made me wonder about the drum sound. It's thin and in places sound as programmed drums. Not good at all.
As always they have re-cut an old Fortune tune (the band Greene and Craig did a record with in 1985), this time it's the song "Deep In The Heart Of Night". It's a true winner of the album with a majestic sound. Again I think the remake sounds better than the old Fortune original.
I find it difficult to pick out any other songs because it feels as they have done them several times already.
We have got used to nothing but great so it is a minor disappointment that they only deliver a good album.

Review by: Stefan