Submission

There was a moment a few minutes ago (you missed it, I'm sorry) where I had to do a double-take on the recording date of this EP. You see, I have it on the best authority (this website, natch) that 'Submission' was recorded in 2007. Now, if you had stuck this record in my earhole and muttered something about 1975, I would have assumed you were sane and had introduced me to a new underground band that took it's cue from Black Sabbath and their less famous brethren Pentagram. But no, this is a modern release, with a style and production that ignores the last 30 or 40 years of heavy metal progress and interests itself with the first five releases by Birmingham's finest.

The guitar is tuned down and bassy, so the whole sound is muddy and sludgy, with bass clearly audible, over-distorting at times as the whole sound bubbles and fuzzes away. The solos are occasionally spacey, like on the closing 'Among the Filth and Slime', but tend to be slightly showy in a classic way. Drums are simple and could be recorded on Bill Ward's kit for all I know, his drum solos aside. Our man Joe Donnelly on vocals has a slightly wavery baritone that reminds me rather strongly of a certain John Osbourne...he also goes by another name, but...I can't remember.

The similarities don't end there. 'Blind Sighted Forward Spiral' (trying saying that while you eat popcorn) is a Pentagram song, though I can't put my finger on exactly which one, and even the vocals veer towards Bobby Liebling's more erratic delivery, which says a lot about the band's confidence with their own ability and style. Then 'Crazy Fingers' reminds me quite a bit of 'Laguna Sunrise' from Sabbath's 'Vol. 4', and so on.

If you love the sound of those bands and don't mind your records sounding like they were recorded cheaply in the mid-70s, you can simply pretend that 'Submission' is a long lost proto-heavy metal release. For those like me, who received the album from the refreshingly generous Bland Hand Records website, we can remain pleased that we haven't lost anything and that Iron Man are having fun with a classic sound.