Iron Beast

If there's an 80s revival going on, it doesn't mean everything that gets rereleased is actually good. Proof: Kratos' Iron Beast. I got a pretty high tolerance level for cheese and unoriginality, and I was even wondering if there wasn't any early-mid eighties band to be found in mp3s that I couldn't apreciate. Cheese and unoriginality are fine as long as it's done or brought well. This EP lacks severely in this respect.

Kratos play typical 'traditional' metal, like you could expect from the mid-eighties: very rock and NWOBHM influenced. However, here there is extra emphasis on traditional, as these guys have no sparkle of originality whatsover. Both the riffs, which are few in number, and the song structures are completely standard, and in fact I'm pretty certain I have heard most of these before. Add to that the vocalist who's pretty weak, and rather silly sounding. Kinda like he tried to emulate his contemporaries but failed. Consider especially the high notes he actually reaches, but which fail to convince me they're any good. It lacks force, depth, energy, spunk, and mainly power. Just like the rest of the music.

This isn't totally horrible to listen to though, as the band sounds like many contemporaries, albeit without many of the positive aspects that are asociated with them. The best description to this EP would be that it's likely the result of a band that lacks much practice and experience (and frankly, any ideas of their own) that managed to pass the critical scrutiny of labelbosses who are supposed to seperate the weaker bands from the stronger bands, by releasing it independently...twice.