Iron Driver

NWOBHM/Maiden worship. Tight, but feels way too rigid - it completely lacks the carefree, wild atmosphere of good NWOBHM, instead it feels stiff. The gruff, charmless vocalist certainly doesn't help. They infuse some melody at points and have a good melodic riff or two, but it's too separated to really impact the songs. The vocalist isn't particularly skilled nor charismatic, so they can't manage the Dickinson nor Dianno sounds - I think they're trying to pull of the Dianno-era Maiden sound, but their dry, stiff sound is incompatible with the freewheeling rock and roll. It's almost like toned-down modern thrash, it's so rigid and tame. This has the demeanor of Richard Nixon.

Originally published in the Dustbin of Demos: Vol IV at Contaminated Tones