Album Review: The Ironfist - Tyrant's Return
Reviewed by Liam True
Necro Wave Of Blackened Heavy Metal is the first thing I saw on the press pack for The Ironfist, and my first thought was "What the fuck is this nonsense?" And after listening to Tyrant’s Return, I still don’t understand it. The vocals of Rip Alhuzzred are more along the lines of NWOBHM and occasionally dips into death metal territory, but only slightly. The guitar work, again, are more along the lines of NWOBHM with the riffs and solo’s shredding just as if Richie Faulkner was on the axe himself. The drum work does veer more into the heavier side of metal than the music and vocals do but even that wouldn’t be constituted as necro wave.
What does push them into necro-wave territory is the production of the album. It’s raw and feels like it’s made in the 90’s in Norway, which does add to the albums favour. Soothsayer, the opening track is mostly a build up with a spoken word passage toward the end as The Tyrant’s Return blares through the speakers with a touch of that 90’s lo-fi production to boot. The vocals rip, the guitars shred and considering it’s a one-man band, all instruments are played very well with Alhuzzred competent enough to make it sound easy.
Broken Shards Of Time has a singalong chorus which adds a fun break from the adrenaline on the previous track. But after Broken Shards, for me the album becomes dull and repetitive. Instrumental wise the album is glorious, but the production lets it down. I did say that the lo-fi nature does help, but only on some tracks, not all. Sword Of Sonja & Earthshaker are great examples of these, but apart from that there’s not much else to rave about or really bring up.
Where Blood Eagles Soar is where the album really ends for me as until you hit the Bathory cover, Song To Hall Up High, which is very faithful to the original. But again, between that and the rest of the album, there’s not much to be taken in from the album. It’s a shame because I wanted to like this album. I don’t hate it but I don’t "like" it either. It’s just an album for me that I’d spin one or two track from every once in a while.
