Wrathwind

Ironstorm is a female-fronted power-thrash band from Edmonton. This five-piece band (two guitars, one bass, one drum and one singer) includes members of pagan-folk metal band Mongol, death metal band Eye of Horus, and heavy-doom band Gatekeeper. With these different horizons blended together, we can expect one hell of a heavy ride.

Wrathwind is the band’s first EP and includes five songs plus a live track, for a total of 32 minutes. From the very beginning of the album, as “Take the Wheel” litterally explodes and creates a power metal hype, we find Ironstorm making a stand for pure heavy metal. The pace is quick, the picking is fast, and the vocals sound incredible. The band knows exactly what metal is about, and they walk the talk. Listen for example to the excellent “Revenant”, a song that displays a catchy and aggressive guitar attack that would make any Anvil and Judas Priest’ imitator jealous.

On the other side of the coin, Wrathwind is like a supper quickly thrown together, where the good ingredients don’t necessarily mix well. The guitar work is like Iron Maiden without the galloping bass. On “Dreamons”, for example, we only find a few melodic rock bass notes, under a thick layer of speed metal guitar. Also, while we can hear everything in the mix, it has the effect of scattering the instruments: the razor-sharp guitars are on the ground floor, the loose bass is a few levels underneath, and the vocals are perched high above. Don’t get me wrong, the execution is fine, but the recording misses something. As a result, Wrathwind sounds like a demo mastered by professional hands (Andy Larocque), rather than a solid first offering.

To sum it up, this EP is the perfect format to show that Ironstorm has good musicianship and potential as a new entity. Should the band work with a professional producer from the very beginning of the pre-production stages, I’m sure it would live up to its name, thus creating a very powerful storm of metal.

-TheBlackHull
[Originally written for blog.metalmadeincanada.ca]