Iron Lamb
Fool’s Gold
High Roller Records
2015
Iron Lamb is a Swedish band that’s been around a few years now and have had an album and an EP released by High Roller records.
They seem to have been born from musicians, from Repugnant, General Surgery, Dismember and Bombstrike either leaving or sidelining from their main bands. At any rate their style is a rather idiosyncratic amalgam of sounds that for the most part sounds like a bizarro take on old school Motorhead. On certain songs the similarity is uncanny… and while the vocals are really rough and forced on, to sound a bit more b“Lemmy”ish-ed, that I believe they normally are for the first few tracks, ie anything from “One Way Track” to backstabbers, I was sort of checking out, if “Fast Eddie” was doing a guest spot too. Track number 5 is totally different, sung in a deep clean baritone, a bit new wave/a bit Nick Cave/gothic, which certainly is throwing a bit of a curve-ball off from what you’d expect. What would probably take up the second side of a vinyl, ie songs from “Pink Mist” onwards, go back to the punk/metal etos, but do so in a whole lot more chaotic way, crossing over all over the place and ending up sounding closer to say Poison Idea and their ilk, rather than Motorhead... which is neither good or bad.
Overall, I’d say, poorman’s Swedish Motor’wannabes with a few nice ideas and conviction but forced vocals, which I suppose in the case of people who like their music a bit more “noizy” might not be a big issue… but it’s a different thing sounding authoritative and sounding like you just had an irrigated colon. It might be a subtle, but it’s a very important difference… at least to my ears.
They seem to have been born from musicians, from Repugnant, General Surgery, Dismember and Bombstrike either leaving or sidelining from their main bands. At any rate their style is a rather idiosyncratic amalgam of sounds that for the most part sounds like a bizarro take on old school Motorhead. On certain songs the similarity is uncanny… and while the vocals are really rough and forced on, to sound a bit more b“Lemmy”ish-ed, that I believe they normally are for the first few tracks, ie anything from “One Way Track” to backstabbers, I was sort of checking out, if “Fast Eddie” was doing a guest spot too. Track number 5 is totally different, sung in a deep clean baritone, a bit new wave/a bit Nick Cave/gothic, which certainly is throwing a bit of a curve-ball off from what you’d expect. What would probably take up the second side of a vinyl, ie songs from “Pink Mist” onwards, go back to the punk/metal etos, but do so in a whole lot more chaotic way, crossing over all over the place and ending up sounding closer to say Poison Idea and their ilk, rather than Motorhead... which is neither good or bad.
Overall, I’d say, poorman’s Swedish Motor’wannabes with a few nice ideas and conviction but forced vocals, which I suppose in the case of people who like their music a bit more “noizy” might not be a big issue… but it’s a different thing sounding authoritative and sounding like you just had an irrigated colon. It might be a subtle, but it’s a very important difference… at least to my ears.