I Have Returned

Iron Man are one of the few bands out there who have managed to build a career on adjectives like "solid" and "enjoyable" rather than "creative" or "amazing". Kudos to the guys then (or whichever guys appear on whichever album, since the line-up has been inconsistent at best) for sticking to it and regrouping in the 21st century, finally recording a follow-up to the decent Generation Void after 10 years. As such, one can understand why Al Morris and company decided to name this album I Have Returned - which is a pretty powerful statement when coupled with the cover art - even though they never officially split up, just kind of wandered away for a while.

Fans of Iron Man have long known what to expect from the Marylanders: low, buzzing doom grooves straight from the mid-'70s, rumbling bass and clattering drums, plus classic vocals narrating tales of hardship, regret, and a few fantasy bits thrown in for good measure. Therefore, a good Iron Man release can usually be measured by two factors. Firstly, if there is a good singer (rarely, if ever, have the band retained the same one between full-lengths) the odds are high that the album will succeed. Secondly, if our man Al Morris has the wherewithal to keep playing down and dirty riffs for the whole runtime, as well as swapping between Sabbath and Pentagram stylings, chances are there will be a lot of fun to be had. As I mentioned above, Iron Man releases tend to be solid rather than great, but here they almost make an exception to the rule, which is a surprise since 2007's Submission EP that originally bore four of these songs sounded messy and unprofessional.

Happily, the recording quality is a step up from that disappointment and Joe Donnelly might just be the finest singer to pass through the ranks, commanding a set of pipes that stalk the line between solemn, authoritative, and lush. Occasionally reminding of Chris Cornell, his style is a great fit for the often thunderously heavy assault of rhythm and bass guitar fuzz, providing finesse to the simple grooves and crafting some wonderful vocal lines in the verses of 'Sodden with Sin', which also packs a gem of a Hendrix-ish blues solo and a bit of a bass doodle for Louis Strachan. While one expects this kind of classic recipe to take a lot of its direction from the string instruments, Dex Dexter also gets a lot of joy on the kit, occupying the best position in the mix out of all Iron Man drummers and using it to smack discipline into the fuzzy rumble around him.

Also pleasing to report - and the factor in which Al Morris has the greatest impact - is the definite improvement of the songs previously released. On my review of Submission, I wrote that 'Blind-Sighted Forward Spiral' was "a Pentgram song", though not a particular one, yet here it becomes a much more powerful number, bounding forward on a Reverend Bizarre riff at twice the speed and heaping on the darkness during the chorus. 'Run from the Light' gets a surprising shot of darkness too, Donnelly proving very capable of turning on the "prophet of doom" voice at the end, while 'I Have Returned' is the pick for most euphoric on the fronts of both solos and vocals. Again I find myself wanting to use a word like "happily" (seems it's Iron Man's lucky day), because there isn't really a song that falls below standards, which means that I Have Returned supersedes other efforts on that front, since there were often one or two filler songs lurking amongst the better cuts. On the other hand, there are no songs that totally beg for attention above the others, so I come back to saying that this is solid, but not spectacular.

Congratulations are in order to Al Morris and Iron Man for pulling through a decade-long quiet period and resurfacing with probably their finest album. Joe Donnelly is a very big plus for the line-up, while the other members all contribute something of interest. Fans of classic metal or doom should be queueing up for this one.