Label- Self Release
Release Date- 3 June 2022
Words- Chris Fletcher
What do you get if you cross the pageantry and big sword energy of traditional heavy metal with the blunt force brutality of the early Florida death metal scene I hear you ask? The answer is a simple one, Iron Tomb. This four track EP from the Birmingham band, recorded and mastered at Loud Noises Studios is the debut offering of a band that show a songwriting craft that defies their short tenure as a group.
Like many a traditional metal record, this focuses on lyrical themes of swords and sorcery and builds a fantasy world for you to inhabit, however, where Iron Tomb differ is that the death metal elements at the heart of these songs ensure that this is an evil fantasy world, one that is burning down around you.
Across the four tracks on display, the band tick all of the death metal boxes that you want ticking. There’s riffs that cut with the force and extremity of a rusty chainsaw whilst piercing lead guitar lines wail over the top. There’s punishing drums and rumbling bass and enough changes of pace to ensure you can never truly get comfortable. Opening track ‘Pagan Rule’ shows the band have a deft hand at bringing the riff back slower whilst lead single ‘Death Immortal’ opens with the sounds of battle, fitting because, after this brief but ferocious affair, you feel like you have been in one.
If this is what this band are able to offer up as a self-released debut album then we should all be very excited. The UK death metal scene is on fire right now and if Iron Tomb are able to consistently write songs of this quality and take this momentum into future releases, then we should be looking at the next band to join the genre’s elite.
9/10.
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