Iron Fire Metalmorphosized
by Derric Miller
Staff Writer
It may surprise you, but Iron Fire has been cranking out their own unique brand of Power Metal for a decade. To commemorate this milestone, Iron Fire wrote new tracks and re-recorded some past tracks that didn’t make it to vinyl/CD/digital the first time around, and put it all together in a goulash known as Metalmorphosized. Out now in Europe and in the States in October, Metalmorphosized is proof that you can try to define a band by a genre, but that genre certainly can’t define the band.
“Reborn to Darkness” catapults the album, and it’s an angry track with singer Martin Steene adding a gritty, vicious edge to his vocals. Drummer Fritz Wagner probably lost 10 pounds just recording this song, or at least he should have, because the speed and blunt power he plays with is rare. The bottom end is bludgeoning, with bassist Martin Lund chugging along with venom to spare, and it’s an eye-opening entrance to Metalmorphosized.
Iron Fire is a Power Metal band, but don’t expect symphonic keys or uplifting melodies from these gents. For instance, on “Still Alive,” you feel the galloping rhythms but again, it’s Steene’s dark vocals, sung with a sneer and a snarl, that keeps the band from Helloween or Dragonforce land. This is as far from “happy metal” as you can get unless you veer off into Black Metal. You do feel the melodies on the chorus, though, especially with gang backing vocals, but then Steene launches into near Death Metal vocals just so you don’t get too comfortable. The stark blasts and machinegun-like rhythms make this a testosterone-fueled ride.
When you look at the song titles, like “Reborn to Darkness,” “The Underworld,” or “Riding Through Hell,” you’ll see the band invests in visual and mythological imagery as they pen their tracks. The song “The Underworld” is one of the harshest songs on the release; it can barely be corralled as Power Metal. While the rhythms race along at typical Power Metal speeds, it’s the vile gruffness from the vocals—jaunting from clean, to Death to Black Metal vocals—that keep the song in a schizophrenic state. There’s just a lot of noise to digest on this one. If you have heard Steene in another one of his bands, Force of Evil, you know that he owns the vocal ability to jet off into a near Halford-esque range — even if it is more falsetto than full or head voice — but he never employs that side of his voice on Metalmorphosized, instead going a heavier and more guttural route, which in the end is a detriment to the release.
By the time you hit “Left for Dead,” which is one of the strongest songs on the entire release, you’ll being to wonder if you haven’t heard this song earlier. If there’s a knock on the album, it’s that the first 11 tracks are all breakneck metal anthems; there’s nary a mid-tempo or ballad to be found. Of course, Iron Fire isn’t that kind of band, either, which is why defining them as Power Metal is only partially correct.
The only time you are allowed to almost catch your breath is on the closing track, “The Phantom Symphony.” Prefacing the meat of the composition are flowing keys and deft guitar playing, but things turn metallic quickly. At nearly 10 minutes in length, it’s the most intricate song on Metalmorphosized, and the most majestic. Along with “Left for Dead,” it’s also the most memorable one here.
Iron Fire is a talented band that can hold their own against anyone. That being said, Metalmorphosized lives up to its name in spades by clubbing you over the skull with such ferocity, you may need to be in the right mood to enjoy to this level of melodic agression over and over again.
Band:
Martin Steene – Vocals
Kirk Backarach – Guitars
Martin Lund – Bass
Fritz Wagner – Drums
Label: Napalm Records
Track listing:
01. Reborn To Darkness
02. Nightmare
03. Still Alive
04. Back In The Pit
05. The Underworld
06. Crossroad
07. Riding Through Hell
08. Left For Dead
09. The Graveyard
10. My Awakening
11. Drowning In Blood
12. The Phantom Symphony
Genre: Power Metal
Online: http://www.ironfire.dk/
Hardrock Haven rating: 7.3/10