Portugal's metal warriors Ironsword are back after a few years of
slumber with their fourth album. For me personally, this is the first
of their albums that I've bought, but judging by the cover and
album/song-titles, I was quite sure what kind of music I expected.
And very well, the heaviest and most epic of metal in the vein of the
eternal masters Manowar, Omen and Manilla Road is what Ironsword
spends their time making. Rough, barbaric and only for those who
think they're tough enough.
The
songwriting is overall great, most songs are memorable. The biggest
strengh is that it's a very consistent album, which means that it
maybe not reaches the highest of mights, but doesn't really have any
actual lows/fillers either. The downside is that sometimes it just
get too derivative of their obvious influences. In the title-track
they have even borrowed some lyrics from Omen's Battle Cry. Sure,
that may have been intended to be some kind of tribute, but it feels
a bit unoriginal, if not a even a bit sacrilegious, to re-use the
lines from such a monumental classic. Also, the opening Forge The
Sword is almost on the borderline of stolen from Necropolis by you
know who. Some of the backing vocalists are actually very reminiscent
of Mark Shelton in an almost uncanny way. I think that's pretty cool
though, since he doesn't really sound like that anymore. If Manilla
Road needs a new frontman, this backing vocals-guy would probably be
the man for the job. To wrap it up, original or not, Ironsword
delivers a great heavy metal album worthy of none but the brave. The
rest of their discography is added to my “check out” list. 7/10
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