IRONFLAME "Blood Red Victory"

IRONFLAME

“Blood Red Victory”

IRONFLAME is typical medieval-themed power metal. They do the style well, but man, there is just too much of this stuff out there. Noble warriors and evil wizards are waiting in line at every D&D Convention hoping they’ll get picked up by bands like this. After a while, you’ve just had enough of it unless you’re one of the forefathers of the genre or you can put a twist on it like LEGENDRY does.

The crusade starts with “Gates of Evermore” and this is a swift, sharp power metal attack, bordering on thrash. It gets the blood racing and the clean vocals of Andrew D’Cagna are pleasant to listen to. With second song “Honor Bound” the pace drops and so does my interest. Mid-paced medieval stuff influenced by HAMMERFALL...there is little more to say about it.

The rest of the album keeps up the swing between fast, bracing tunes and more pedestrian plodders. I pick “Graves of Thunder” as one of the better ones as this has overtones of PRIEST and ACCEPT. No song is really bad, but the themes of knighthood and bold crusades are worn smooth like stones under a waterfall. Not a bad album but not that essential.

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