Iron Fire
Among the Dead
Crime Records
2016
I always considered Iron Fire as a run of the mill, average band, only for fanatic true/epic metalheads that however used to be OK-ish when they started in the late 90s. Nowadays, eight albums later and reduced to a trio, they seem to still be going on, with marginally better production values, but also a crunch and occasionally growls/angry vocals that sound like a rough James Hetfield, which isn’t exactly something to write home about.
While the songs tend to have a decent riff for the most part the overall sense is too “crunchy” for the puritan in me, despite the often “epic” interludes and leads and even those are sort of cheesy and decidedly second rate.
Imho, this is a very love it or leave it album, if you like it, you’re gonna like it in its entirety, but if you don’t, the angst ridden vocals not mixing too well with the musical background is going to be a major deal breaker. Even a predictable cover of ‘tallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” comes across as something that a hardcore band would have done, with weird pushy vocal inflections that feel unnatural in their effort to be guttural.
Give it a listen, if you’re a fan, but otherwise you can do so much better either with authentic vintage or at least better performed recent material.
While the songs tend to have a decent riff for the most part the overall sense is too “crunchy” for the puritan in me, despite the often “epic” interludes and leads and even those are sort of cheesy and decidedly second rate.
Imho, this is a very love it or leave it album, if you like it, you’re gonna like it in its entirety, but if you don’t, the angst ridden vocals not mixing too well with the musical background is going to be a major deal breaker. Even a predictable cover of ‘tallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” comes across as something that a hardcore band would have done, with weird pushy vocal inflections that feel unnatural in their effort to be guttural.
Give it a listen, if you’re a fan, but otherwise you can do so much better either with authentic vintage or at least better performed recent material.