Ironwood – Fire:Water:Ash

Releasedate: 28-03-2009
By: Sabine van Gameren

Ironwood is an Australian progressive folk metal band which just released their album “Fire:Water:Ash”.

A pure calmth en serenity comes with this album, no aggressive parts at all. It is very atmospheric, a bit of ambient in it here and there. Though, the vocals might be far and I mean really far away, from what you might have expected. Deep vocals, sounding a bit forced into the lower notes, dominate. Some screams are there as well in some songs. I rather listen to those as they seem more true. The make the total a bit more folk metal than progressive. It is that I am missing pipe bags and violin but otherwise I could say they have a bit of the Dutch band Scotch, on the other hand they are now not like the typical folk band which deserves my thumbs up.

Instrumentally the band shows of some interesting tricks. It’s just that I am not really sure what to think of the vocals. Because it sometimes sounds a bit forced I wonder how this will keep up live and if we can still continue to hear them this way in future.
Just something to keep track on, I would say!

Line up:
Phil Brown – Vocals, Guitars
Henry Lauer – Vocals, Bass
Dan Nahum – Drums
Matthew Raymond – Vocals, Guitars

Tracklist: 01. Önd Ascending 02. The Oncoming Storm 03. The Raven song 04. Jarnvidr Gallows 05. The Serpent Seeks Its Tail 06. Tide Of Memory 07. Love In Death 08. River Of Fire 09. Eihwaz Descending

Links:
Ironwood MySpace
Ironwood Official