Iron Void emerges from the mist with their fourth full-length doom album.

Iron Void started twenty-five years ago in the UK, laying down the doom and dark fantasy. Over the course of a live album, an EP, and three previous full-length albums, Iron Void has become known for their focus on myth and dark stories, including the Arthur legend. The new album retains the heaviness but takes off in more pedestrian narrative directions, dealing with many everyday horrors. The band is Jonathan “Sealey” Seale (bass, vocals), Steve Wilson (guitar, vocals), and Scott Naylor (drums).

There is an intro ramp and then eight songs on the new album. “Grave Dance” is a mid-tempo stomper that has a heavy groove and a noodling presence. It is hard-driving metal that made for a great single last year. “Living On The Earth” is more contemplative, and doomier. “Pandora’s Box,” is a radio-length banger that weaves a wicked groove around the irresistible vocal delivery. This one will be a crowd pleaser, and no mistake. “Blind Dead” is more serious in tone, and heavier in the riff. It is exceptionally well set-up as a massive doom song at the end of side one.

Th back half of the record is every bit as good as the front. “She” leads the charge in a mysterious vein, quieter and in many ways more determined to get its message across. “Lords Of The Wasteland” is a dusty song of gigantic proportion. The lumbering behemoth could crush you and not even realize you were there. “Slave One” reminds me of a non-Ozzy Iommi riff and cadence, while the closer, “Last Rites,” is the kind of song that takes you over before you know it, and holds you in its sway until it finishes. Dramatic in a Ritchie Blackmore kind of way (if he were in a dreary mood), it etches its signature on the inside of your skull, tying a nice black bow on the set. Recommended.

Iron Void’s fourth album is out on Friday, January 27^th through Shadow Kingdom Records on digital, CD, vinyl, and cassette.

Band photo by Rob Benson.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://ironvoid.bandcamp.com/album/iv

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ironvoid/

Shadow Kingdom Records, https://www.shadowkingdomrecords.com/

© Wayne Edwards