Blade of Triumph

Iron Fire is probably the oddest tale in the power metal book of chronicles, perhaps mostly in that they somehow managed to typify the downfall of 80s heavy/speed metal in two albums within the early crevice of the new millennium, and then managed to have a full resurgence years after their downfall. Starting off as a very young yet highly respectable hybrid of Helloween’s majestic and melodic speed, and the grittier, heavier character of their German contemporaries Running Wild and Grave Digger, they managed to put together a colossus in “Thunderstorm”, which was immediately followed by a glam-like style shift comparable to the Kiske era of Helloween after “Keepers 1 and 2” and Grave Digger’s one album stint as mainstream purveyors of the cybernetic Donald Duck. Roughly 5 years after, front man and songwriter Martin Steene reformed the band with an entirely new lineup and delivered a more mature yet solid return to the “Thunderstorm” format in “Revenge”.

In the same fashion, “Blade Of Triumph” sees the same band forsaking experimentation for the sake of a consistent, hard edged assault in the grand tradition of the early to mid 80s heavy metal movement. It tends a little bit away from the constant speed assault heard on the debut, but it cooks quite often in comparison to a lot of the AOR tinged members of the current power metal flock in Europe. There is a somewhat greater element of folksy acoustic influence at play, mostly coming off as a more simplified, less orchestral variant on Blind Guardian’s approach to the token ballad, or perhaps that of Galloglass and Human Fortress for a more recent example. But the dominant force at play here is that of the mid 80s German scene, as can be gleaned from the standard songwriting approach and the gritty, lower vocal approach of Steene.

There’s no fancy tricks at play here, no gimmicky progressive splicing of genres or nuances, this is a straight shot of prototypical 80s speed and sleaze that is relatively easy to consume, though will likely give indigestion to anyone not beholden to metal mania. Whether it’s the fast and catchy remembrance of this band’s early Helloween influences in “Dragonheart”, the slower fist pounding heaviness of “Bloodbath Of Nights” and “Steel Invaders”, or the melodic fanfare with a small helping of Accept in “Dawn Of Victory” and “Follow The Sign”, there is a continuous familiarity that is easy to grab onto for anyone who misses the glory days when metal’s principle nemesis was the somewhat softer version of itself in bands like Motley Crue and Dokken. There’s a consistent sense of epic storytelling in the lyrics that more resembles the Manowar tendencies of current day adherents of this style, but the sound is handedly archaic by metal standards. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the faithful reproduction of NWOBHM adherent Demon’s first assault upon the early 80s “Night Of The Demon”, which apart from Steene’s vocals is a perfect recreation of the mystical, creepy yet consonant atmosphere of that era.

Though this album is underscored primarily by its consistency and doesn’t have a dull moment, there are two absolute zeniths that will leap out at anyone who is drawn to this formula. The first and probably the most uncharacteristic of Iron Fire’s songs to date is the all acoustic ballad “Legend Of The Magic Sword”, which takes a familiar tale in the exploits of King Arthur and the knights of Camelot and gives it a charming musical backdrop. The lyrics are not so much an in depth reinterpretation of the tale, in fact they are pretty cliché compared to Kamelot’s “Shadow Of Uther”, but when combined with a Blind Guardian-like arrangement and a thick, gravely vocal performance, gel into something that might possess you to raise a lighted Zippo to in your own bedroom. By contrast, “Bridges Will Burn” is the most characteristic of the Iron Fire that most will remember, albeit with somewhat more thrashing of a riff set. There’s nothing fancy about this song, save the guitar solo section, it’s just a solid fit of Judas Priest styled, high octane goodness that dominated the majority of “Thunderstorm”.

This is on par with the immature yet satisfying 2000 offering by a group of Danish teenagers that bore this name, of whom only the lead vocalist is still in congress. This is a band that has now fully reclaimed their place among the early revivalists who turned the clock back a much needed decade at the turn of the millennium. It’s ideal fodder for anyone who likes metal for what it is, rather than what it can be mixed with. It is fitting that after revenge, next comes triumph, and that is the essential story that is “Blade Of Triumph”.

“Blade Of Triumph” is the fourth album by Martin Steene and his brothers of steel in the band. The line-up for this album is actually the same as the album before, the ‘comeback’ album “Revenge”. And the line-up isn’t the only thing that is the same. Iron Fire continues in the absolute exact path as they showed on that album and their debut. This is power metal allright with that extra cheese. Singing about battles, steel, brothers, metal and all such related themes, and often with very melodic choruses, vocal lines...everything. That’s what Iron Fire is all about. And even if you can find some fine power metal-classics on here, the whole big picture of the album isn’t that very good.

The album’s opener “Dragonheart” begins really great with a neat intro. Great riffs here. The song’s great all the way until the verses and vocals kicks in. It’s not that Martin Steene is a bad vocalist, no, I like his kinda ‘own’ vocals. It’s just that it gets too soft and a tad too melodic, and that’s not only in this song. I mean there is at least two kinds of the genre Power Metal. We have one with some darker and harder bands like Morgana Lefay, Paragon and Nevermore for examples. And we have the other being bands like Freedom Call, Sonata Arctica and Hammerfall. Sadly, I must say, Iron Fire is easily packed in the later one. And that is their problem, at least for my ears. Some more harder and heavier stuff squeezed in here and there and this could’ve been great. Second problem I have with this album is lyrics, even if it doesn’t have much input in the overall rating. These kinda lyrics are ridicolous, and I hope they will change them to next album. But, it’s a part of the Iron Fire-concept so I guess I will have to live with it eternally.

Anyway, we have at least two great songs on here. First one being the metal-hymn “Steel Invaders” with it’s big, shout-along chorus. Here it doesn’t get that brutally melodic, it’s just a cool chorus that’s nice to sing along to. And the verses are great, heavy pounding. Very nicely done, IF. The second must be one of the best songs made under the name of Iron Fire, and ironically...it’s a ballad. The ballads this band has done during their career are horribly bad, absolutely all of them. On here though, they’ve created a really good one. I’m of course talking about “Legend Of The Magic Sword”. Martin does a phenomenal work with the vocals, and is also the main writer of the song. Nice music and the chorus is awesome, especially at the end where it heats up. And for once, I wished it could’ve been repeated another time there at the end, but nope we only get it one time there. This should’ve been the ending song as the two songs after isn’t even close being as good as “Legend”... together.

So yeah we have some songs being OK here and two great ones, but in overall the album just contains too many fillers to reach the higher ratings. I think the guys must work harder to be more consistent, because too many songs here are actually, clearly speaking: boring. Like “Follow The Sign” and “Lord of the Labyrinth”. I think they absolutely have potential though to reach higher grounds, they showed it with the debut-album which is a power metal-gem. I’m usually a fan of power metal, but not when it gets too ‘flower power’ and this ‘happy’. Let’s await and see now how the next IF-album will sound. It shall be interesting. But until then, check out “Thunderstorm” instead. ‘Cause the only thing that is better here is the production.

3 best songs: Legend Of The Magic Sword, Steel Invaders, Jackal’s Eye

Iron Fire are back with their fourth album and for the second time in their career, they have truly wowed me (the first time being their debut 'Thunderstorm').

When they released 'Thunderstorm' in 2000, Iron Fire seemed to be on top of their world with their amazing, epic debut... then surely enough they fucked up big time with their second effort 'Over the Edge', a release so "bleh" it got them dropped from their label. In 2006, Vocalist Martin Steene brought out an all new line up and release 'Revenge', showing a much angrier side of Iron Fire, and as good as that album is; it missed the the one thing that made 'Thunderstorm' such a great album... the fun.

Enter 2007, and Steene has released the perfect hybrid of Iron Fire's previous three albums... it has the aggressive crunch in the riffs that was one of the few redeeming qualities of 'On the Edge', it has the more complex style of song writing of 'Revenge', but most of all it has the fun and overall simplicity of 'Thunderstorm', all the way down to the cheesy, cliche lyrics.

Things start off strong with the near 6 minute epic 'Dragonheart', which has some of the best lead/rythmn trade offs of Iron Fire's career, and it's chorus immediately gives you that sense of epicness and power that truly defines Power Metal. Right afterwards we get bombarded by heavy drumming and a fucking heavy riff, alot heavier than your typical Iron Fire and suddenly it slows down into the verse that would form the song 'Bloodbath of Knights', this is my pick for best song of the album, almost entirely due to the epic, heavy chorus "DIE BY THE BLADE! Die by the sword..." Epic.

The follow up to that great 1-2 opener is a song which reaks of cheesey power metal... and that's not a bad thing, I'm talking of course about 'Dawn of Victory', it's cheesy but it's fun. The next song 'Lord of the Labyrinth' starts off pretty dull and lame with its talk of elves in the woods, typical D&D Nerd stuff, but it's chorus is good enough to make up for it... Actually pretty much every chorus this band has ever done rules to no end.

The next couple songs are also pretty good but there isn't much that can be said, just decent tracks, although 'Steel Invaders' deserves a mention, basically it's the unofficial sequal to 'Metal Victory' from 'Thunderstorm' and it's just as good, with a chorus that just screams "I'm a metal head and I'm better than you!".

Now if anyone remembers 'Thunderstorm' there is one songs which doesn't fit and pretty much is the only flaw, the power ballad 'Angel of Light'... well this one also has a power ballad 'Legend of the Magic Sword', but this is anyone but a flaw, this is probably my pic as second best track... although it's a very cheesey retelling of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone... so it's pretty lame lyrically...

The album closes with the over 7 minute epic title track, oddly enough this has the worst chorus of the album, but the verses and instrumental sections more than make up for it and it's a great way to close up this album.

Some versions also come with two bonus tracks 'Island of Damnation' and 'Night of the Demon' these two songs are just as good as anything on the album and it's a bit weird that they didn't make the original cut, but either way they're definately worth checking out.

Maybe this album isn't as good as their debut album, maybe it is, it's too hard to decide... but either way this is essential Power Metal.

Iron fire are now back to their initial roots with the release of "Blade Of Triumph", the band which release their excellent debut CD "Thunderstorm" in 2000 did not release an acclaimed CD by the media the next year and were signed off from their label Sanctuary Records. Five years later the band have made their "Revenge" which it was a great CD but the songs doesn't have catchy and powerful chorus and now they have triumphed with these elements just like with their debut CD back in 2000.

The CD starts with the amazing song "Dragonheart" in the veins of power/melodic metal they rise through the ashes and shows their ability to do great songs, and this is just the beginning of some great power/melodic metal through the next hour.

The next three songs on the CD, continues to show the rise of Iron Fire in the scene of metal especially with the song "Lord Of The Labyrinth" with another great and catchy chorus with the only voice of Martin Steene.

One song that called my attention is the ballad "Legend Of The Magic Sword", once the song started fans of the band might have thought of the ballad "Angel Of Light" from the debut CD which is the worst song by the band 'till date but what you listen is one ballad kind of epic with great vocals by Martin which can be played in a live concert to slow things down.

But to say that the band has triumphed again, songs that for sure are going to be in the top songs of 2007 and fans will rock along in the concerts are "Steel Invaders" with the already famous chorus "Raise the metal fist in the air...", the kind of doom metal song "Follow The Sign" what an amazing song, the great powerful "Jackal's Eye" with once again another catchy chorus and finally the best song of the CD, "Gladiator's Path", which starts with great guitars and some screams by Martin Steene, this start already made me think of the great "Metal Victory" from their debut and as the song goes on it shows great melody throughout and the chorus is unforgettable.