Iron Fire

Metalmorphosized

Written by: PP on 03/12/2010 03:35:33

My fellow scribe EW took a listen to the previous album Danish power/heavy metal band Iron Fire early last year, concluding it was "so dull, so unoriginal, so painful in it's metal pretences that I as a weather-hardened metalhead feel physically sick listening to it", proceeding to award it one of the lowest grades in our rating scale. We figured a second opinion was necessary for their newest album "Metalmorphosized", given how the band has been together for 10 years which must count for something, right? Right guys?

Unfortunately, I'm inclined to agree with EW's words, although I shan't be anywhere near as harsh. You can say what you like, but Iron Fire is generic heavy/power metal with a capital G. They're so typical for the genre that I can making a quick search for "power metal" or "heavy metal" in our review database returns at least 30 different bands who sound exactly like "Metalmorphosized", which is supposedly their best album to date. There are hints of Dragonforce-esque approach to power metal, with heavy references to Helloween et al as well, but there's a constant backthought dwindling about that Iron Fire are nowhere near as capable as either of the these two bands. Simply put, their songs are bland, boring renditions of a genre that has been done to death a million billion times already. Some, like Grave Digger, are able to breathe fresh air into the genre even after having been a band for nearly three decades, while others, like Iron Fire so unequivocally demonstrate throughout this album, are content to just sounding like _everyone_ else in the genre, especially those from the Germanic territories.

The elements used here can all be summed up with a simple term: recycled. From the colossal, echoing soundscapes, to the big, powerful riffs and bland vocals, it's all been done so many times before that it's difficult to understand how it can be profitable to be constantly releasing identical albums in a genre which suffers the most out of all from extreme levels of saturation. It says a lot about the album when I can summarize the first five songs as "banging head against the wall" before being awaken by "Crossroad", the first attempt at something different in the form of guest female tracks. It's a balladic track, and still not contesting in the upper league of power metal, but at least it's different. Later "Riding Through Hell" displays impressive riffage when the tempo is upped, but these are merely small glimpses of brightness in an album filled with cliché and generic delivery. Our recommendation: skip.

4

Download: Riding Through Hell, Crossorad
For the fans of: Dragonforce (less technical), Helloween
Listen: Myspace

Release date 04.10.2010
Napalm Records

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