IRON FIRE – Metalmorphosized

Ten years passed since Iron Fire released their debut album, Thunderstorm. That album marked a new type of EU Power Metal. Iron Fire now celebrates a decade of recordings, and has delivered six albums to the Metal world. This year, Iron Fire has unleashed Metalmorphosized.

This new release, besides serving as an anniversary gift for the band and its fans, is a marker for what is bestowed to the future of Power Metal and Metal. The perceived direction is rather easy to guess. Just like other emerging or existing Power Metal acts in today’s Modern Metal scene, Iron Fire keeps close proximity to Extreme Metal. Metalmorphosized, on its diverse tracks of present and past (between the On The Edge and Revenge albums), is the flag for the future, and that future may be a rather pleasant one if this quality of work stays intact.

Metalmorphosized has a kicking drive. Its flow is kept by the darkness that is spread throughout the material. Unlike the band’s first albums, the channeled fantasy doesn’t sound like the majestic and naïve style by bands like Rhapsody Of Fire … Iron Fire is much farther advanced than that. By today’s comparison, the wicked fantasy of Iron Fire is rather closer to that of bands like Nostradamus and the nasty sound and methodology of the modern German and Swedish Heavy/Power Metal acts. Moreover, the insertion of elements of Extreme Metal add important nuances to their music. Vocalist Martin Steene, for example, inserted elements during his performance as he did with his other band, Force Of Evil.

The new path of the band, as mentioned, didn’t ruin Iron Fire’s efforts on making good songs. Quite the opposite, it enhanced it. The birth of a new darkness via “Reborn In Darkness”, the aggressive pounders “Left For Dead” and “Back In The Pit”, the secretive yet monstrous “The Underworld”, and the epic opus “The Phantom Symphony” may draw your initial attention, as those are the album’s strongest killers.

Maybe the album’s greatest fault is that there are not enough hits, as parts of their songs have somewhat repetitive sceneries … such as the same beats, for instance. Examples are tracks like “Riding Through Hell” and “My Awakening”, which are the album’s weakest links.

Bottom line is that ten years after Iron Fire’s debut, intact with almost all the band’s past members, this new release is a good way to start a new decade. Check out Metalmorphosized.

Lineup

Martin Steene – Vocals
Kirk Backarach (Mads Korre Andersen) – Guitars
Martin Lund – Bass
Fritz Wagner – Drums