IRONSWORD - None But The Brave

July 15, 2015, 8 years ago

(Shadow Kingdom)

Greg Pratt

Rating: 6.5

review heavy metal ironsword

IRONSWORD - None But The Brave

Portuguese defenders of the faith Ironsword love their metal, no bones about it: opener "Forging The Sword" here is a painfully earnest ode to trad sounds, and it ain't pretty, in all the right ways: the gruff vocals try to hit notes, and I guess they're doing it, but in a very ugly manner (so, yeah, Grave Digger pop to mind pretty quick here). And so it goes through the album, the band delivering tunes that are heavy, solid, and very much an ode to the glory days of '80s underground metal, every one anthemic and a whole lot of fun to spin. 

And you really gotta love those nasty vox: if this had some guy waxing operatic over top of the tunes, I'd probably hate it. But here the metal is forged in fire, every drum hit clearly hit with passion, every soaring solo taking you over the rainbow. I dig, only reason it can't really go above a solid 6.5 is replay value that is minimal and there is a slight, well, embarrassment factor at play here, to be frank. Sometimes such an unabashed love letter to the great, hairy, hoary, unwashed bands of our most beloved of genres carries with it a sense that, man, maybe if I'm listening to this at work I should put the headphones on.



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