Andras - Iron Way - review
Andras - Iron Way - review
Tracklist
01. Intro02. Miasma Track
03. Spellbreaker
04. Across Those Highlands
05. Return To Black Hill
06. Infested
07. Dunkelwald
08. Pagan Path
09. Kreuzweg
10. Outro
A review by
Raiden December 15, 2008
The first thing you notice about this album though is the magnificent cover artwork. The image of a cloaked man wandering through the snowy forest with a cloudy mountain range in the background shows off some great illustration. On to the music though; after an uplifting intro the booming clean vocals, fairly fast chilly riffing and double-kick drumming set the scene for the album. The cleaner vocals are also accompanied by some harsh vocals which are of the growl/rasp hybrid variety. Both vocal styles complement each other well but the clean vocals just don't sit quite perfectly with me. I generally quite like the style Andras are using, but somehow the clean vocals here, while rather good, are perhaps a bit too nasally. I found the drumming pretty one-track too. It's generally either constant bass blasting or that fast snare rhythm (which at least isn't abused to the extent of which Marduk used to) with a few quick high to low range passes thrown in. The drumming isn't sloppy or untalented, just rather repetitive and therefore can be boring at times. On the plus side, the keyboards used as a kind of background are excellent. The atmospheres created are very fitting to the Pagan vibe and really give the music a nice lift. An epic feel around the music is often felt because of them.
So while Iron Way does have its flaws, it isn't all bad and I still get some enjoyment out of listening to the album over again. With the solid blackened guitar-work and the awesome foundation created by Adversarius' keyboards, there's pleasure to be had here.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 7 |
Written by Raiden | December 15, 2008
Comments
Comments:
9
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Posts: 3751  |
Posts: 3751
Surely I ll check this one. All black/pagan metal mixing with clean vocal to somewhat creating epic atmosphere appeals me.
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 Posts: 9720 |
Posts: 9720
Clean vocals a bit too nasal? I found them just perfect! It's just the Queen ripoff in "Pagan Path" that annoyed the fuck out of me. All the other tracks are very good though and I like the overall atmosphere of the album. An 8 from me.
---- All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu... This is the truth! This is my belief! ...At least for now. - The Mystery of Life, Vol. 841 Ch. 26
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Posts: 877  |
Posts: 877
Will check this one right away! Sounds promising.
---- The Land Is Silent... Before The Storm!
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Posts: 27
Reminds me of a less progressive/trippy version of enslaved, pretty cool
---- God has a hard-on for me.
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Posts: 8292 Written by Promonex on 15.12.2008 at 14:50 I found it hard to explain haha. I still think they're quite great, but they almost don't seem to flow out entirely perfectly.
---- "Scream for me Melbourne!!!!" - Bruce Dickinson "I don't see any god up here" - Yuri Gagarin (while in orbit, 1961)
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 Posts: 3139 |
Posts: 3139
You know when someone writes a review and states that when playing the CD the music takes you elsewhere? This one does exactly that, the more I listen to it the more I like it. And just as Will mentioned in the review, both the clean and the harsh ones simply complement each other.
---- "Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died." Ser Jorah Mormont
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 Posts: 2955 |
Posts: 2955 Written by Raiden on 17.12.2008 at 06:13 I know what you mean.. its the same clean vocals of ''...Of old wisdom'', they really do sound a little nasal, I guess thats the word who better describes it..  This album has one of the coolest epic Intros ive ever heard, simply loved that 1st minute. From the other songs, my favorites are ''Miasma Track'' and ''Return to the black hill'', not to mention the perfect ''Across those Highlands'' An 8 sound like a perfect rate imo.
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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