They preach Satanism, bathe their crowds in blood and play the unholiest strain of… doo-wop music? Twin Temple are a fabulous anomaly – and they’re taking metal by storm

WORDS: MERLIN ALDERSLADE • PICTURES: TRAVIS SHINN

"Satan is good!”

Twin Temple singer Alexandra James is praising the Great Horned One because, after three failed attempts, we’ve finally managed to sort the connection for this evening’s interview. We can’t imagine that The Devil himself ever envisioned his name being praised courtesy of a Google Hangout, but then again, we can’t imagine he ever envisioned something like Twin Temple, either. 

“We never formulated this as a ‘gimmick’,” Alexandra later insists. “This is who we are and this is the band that we wanted to put out. I think, a lot of times, anything new and fresh that people haven’t seen before is a ‘novelty’, it’s a ‘gimmick’, because it’s brand new. But, I think over time, that idea will wear off.”

Among all the exciting young bands you’ll read about in this issue, the rise and rise of Twin Temple might just be the most unlikely story of all. They are formed of LA-based wife and husband duo Alexandra (vocals) and Zachary (guitar), plus a touring band that includes a drummer, bassist, keyboardist and a saxophone player. None of that is too outside the realms of heavy metal folklore these days – the likes of Ghost and Ihsahn have shown that even a saxophone has a welcome place in our world. But this is something entirely different. For a start, Twin Temple don’t actually play heavy metal. They play doo-wop – the soulful, swinging, early strain of rock’n’roll that first emerged within young black communities in 1930s America, eventually sweeping the US’s biggest cities come the turn of the 50s. And, despite playing music that really isn’t metal at all, in 2021 Twin Temple stand as one of the metal scene’s most exciting young names.

“We were really excited that metal just opened their arms and their leather jackets and let us in, because we had no fucking clue who a Twin Temple fan would be,” Alexandra laughs. “It’s not like we’re fucking Slayer, laying down the heaviest, face-melting blastbeats. I’m glad that metal has welcomed us into the black circle.”

We shouldn’t be surprised. If there’s one thing metalheads appreciate almost as much as a big-ass riff, it’s music that is truly subversive: those rare bands who are able to connect with us not because they go as hard and heavy as possible, but because they capture the feeling of what metal is all about, eschewing the norm to blaze a trail born of the left-hand path. Twin Temple are a band that have been able to capture that vibe more than most, because it’s an ethos they live by. Alexandra and Zachary are devout Satanists, and their doo-wop jams tell stories not of broken hearts and romantic flings, but of liberation, defiance, sexual empowerment and blasphemy, all carried by catchy arrangements and Alexandra’s rich, jazzy vocals. It’s like listening to Amy Winehouse sing about Lucifer. And it’s all rooted in the same basic principles that have made rock’n’roll such an enduring, exciting form of expression across the years.