'A bass and drum duo from Phoenix'.

You could be forgiven if you misread that. That's right, Metal Temple is not covering the techno or rave scene, but instead a pioneering pair from Arizona. Opie and RRRL have had a seemingly turbulent beginning, trying to define their sound and what they wish to achieve, but here is the anticipated debut album 'New Way'.

The album artwork is simple, yet extremely bright and eye catching with vibrant colours and sharp edges. Opening the record is "Gotta Make Time" with the reverb wound right up the introduction is misty, and disorientating. But the clarity comes within the main body. The energetic and emphatic opening track sets down a marker for the remainder.

The off-time rhythms and electric pace continues into "The List" with the interesting musical effects that were created solely through the use of the two instruments. Now, like me, you may have been wondering whether bass and drums can create the atmosphere and strength of sound that a full compliment normally would. However, they have knocked it out of the park. Consider, for a moment that these two instruments are the solid foundation to any band, and further to that, one could play the bass like a guitar... as one Lemmy once stated...

"New Way" and "Crow Man" continue to show the knowledge and understanding held by all (both) members of 73 LIBRA flares of Prog and some early RHCP shine through the powerful performances. The record continues going from strength to strength finally arriving at "Pimp Hand". Personally, this was not the track to end on, the happy-go-lucky feel and relative weakness of the track when compared to others within the album seemed to send the release out on a whisper as opposed to the bang it deserved.

Overall, a strong first release from the duo. This was an ambitious and challenging project, but I am sure from this showing that 73 LIBRA are going to go from strength to strength, having all the fun they possibly can.