Album: Iron Fire, Voyage of the Damned
Label: Napalm
Release: January 27, 2012
Tracks:
1. The Dark Beyond
2. Enter Oblivion OJ-666
3. Taken
4. Slaughter of Souls
5. Leviathan
6. The Final Odyssey
7. Ten Years In Space
8. Voyage of the Damned
9. With Different Eyes
10.Dreams of the Dead Moon
11.Verge to Collide
12.Realm of Madness
Iron Fire is Iron Fire. I probably could end the review there and any true power metal fan would understand. But for those that aren’t, this is a very typical power metal record but has a twist or turn here and there.
To like an Iron Fire record first starts with being able to tolerate Martin Steene’s often nasally vocals. If that doesn’t bother you (and it doesn’t bother me) then it’s about the rhythm section which happen to be pretty tight on their seventh album. But this time around, it’s simply the quality of the tracks themselves that leave you feeling let down.
What used to be a pretty revolving lineup that Steene put together has now actually been in place since 2004 and has recorded five albums together. I liked the previous four but I have to admit that while good, the last couple haven’t really brought anything new to the table. Unfortunately, neither does their new one. It’s a power metal record almost by the books however the growls on “Slaughter of Souls” and strings present in the otherwise pedestrian “Taken” add a slightly different element to their sound.
But for each good track is one like “Leviathan” which lacks any sort of catchiness and seems to have no clear direction. “Ten Years In Space” starts out with a fierce riff that gets abandoned only a minute into the track and at over 10 minutes, the epic length title track feels like it goes on forever.
Iron Fire’s always going to make decent records but unfortunately, Voyage of the Damned sounds like their least inspired in quite a while.
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