It would be an understatement to say that Michael Schenker has had a long, and very successful career. His history with SCORPIONS and UFO ensures that he has earned a place in a lot of peoples' minds as one of the best rock guitarists in the business.

"Temple Of Rock" is pretty good, to say it simply. The album starts off with William Shatner speaking over some backing music, and he hams it up, as he is sometimes known to do... but of course, within the context of the album, it's not out of place. The release features 12 new songs and most of them hit the spot quite nicely. The first one, "How Long", didn't really make that much of an impression on me, but the track afterwards, "Fallen Angel", is brilliant. There are moments of brilliance in terms of Schenker's guitar playing scattered throughout a lot of the album, but unfortunately there are places where it falls a little flat, most tellingly on the slightly underwhelming "Miss Claustrophobia". The lyrics also fall a little short of the mark, but to be fair, the lyrics are hardly the main focus when it comes to a Michael Schenker album.

There are a lot of guest musicians present on "Temple Of Rock" as well, but I'll get to that in a minute. Schenker's backing band is excellent, but you'd probably expect that considering it features ex-SCORPIONS drummer Herman Rarebell and UFO's Pete Way on bass. So, to the guest musicians. There's a big list of them here, and it features names such as Brian Tichy, Leslie West, Carmine Appice, and Paul Raymond. And they all do a fantastic job in bringing the album together. One of the album's awesome moments is the second version of "How Long", made far better by the guitar battle between Schenker, Leslie West and Michael Amott.

"Temple Of Rock" is what you'd expect from Michael Schenker, to be honest. It's hard rocking, there are awesome solos and riffs, and the lyrics are probably best ignored. There's even your typical 80's Rock anthem "Storming In". All in all, it's a good album, and while maybe not one for loads of listens, it's definitely one fans of Schenker are going to enjoy.