It’s more than obvious that (especially) European heavy/power music has lost its shining armor many years now and is trying to hold on to some good bands without the helping hand of the big ones… which eventually became simply good over the years. How can you avoid the clichés of that music genre? It’s really hard to do so… some try to become more melodic and others heavier and more aggressive. That’s the case with the Danish heavy/power metalers here… they have been around for over 15 years, they’ve seen the ups and downs of their career throughout the years… and they chose to go a step further and try something else with their 7th release.
“Voyage of The Damned” is more aggressive and heavier than the previous albums … without dropping the characteristic heavy/power metal music of the band… but this time some speed/thrash and death metal (mostly on the vocal part - Steene does some brutal vocals as well) elements have been integrated on the band’s sound. The result is good and it will actually take the loyal fans of the band by surprise.
The space thematology, the dim atmosphere (which lies underneath) and songs like… “The Final Odyssey” (a stunning atmospheric song), “Ten Years In Space”, the homonymous “Voyage of The Damned” (a 10 minute space trip – feat. Nils K. Rue – Pagan’s Mind/Eidolon), “Enter Oblivion OJ-666”, “Taken” (feat. Ivan Grosmeyer), “Slaughter Of The Souls” (feat. Dave Ingram – ex Benediction/Bolt Thrower), “Leviathan” and “Dreams Of The Dead Moon” will surely grab your attention. This release contains 12 songs (13 if we add “Warmaster of Chaos” that’s featured on the limited edition digipak version) so we’re talking about over 1 hour of heavy aggressive power metal music… be sure that you will find several songs to like in here. The album was recorded in Jakob Hansen Studios and the production is huge in any way. The guys are giving their best throughout the album but I must specifically refer to Martin Steene (vocals/songwriting) who is all over this album with his excellent performances.
Only time will tell, whether Iron Fire have taken the right turn on their career… by adding more aggressive metal influences to their music… the fans of the band will surely like it… but the real deal will be to bring new fans on board…
