Iron Mask is now releasing their sixth album and have spent two years preparing it. Originally set up as a power metal side project, their impressive credentials including the fact they have played alongside Hammerfall and Europe, it looks like the project has been successful.
Straightaway we’re set upon with an attack of speed and cheese. It’s as if it’s a case of fulfilling the contractual obligation. “I Don’t Forget I Don’t Forgive” has the familiar catchy rhythm, structure, drum tap, vocal gymnastics and guitar solo of a typical power metal song. Symphonic tones intervene on “Doctor Faust”, which quickly reverts to type. “Doctor Faust, Doctor Faust – have you sold your soul?”, goes the chorus. If you read Goethe, you’d find out that he did. I reflected that I’d rather watch or read the play than have it cast in power metal jollity. This is as clichéd as it gets, and whilst I don’t dislike the power metal vibe, the thought of listening to another ten similar songs was not appealing to me. The song does take a darker turn, to be fair, and I felt a glimmer of hope. I haven’t used the word “bombast” so far but have no fear, there’s plenty of it on “Galileo”. Like “Doctor Faust” before it, there is a dark twist before the obligatory guitar solo and more choral bombast. “More, more, more, more” goes the chorus of “Oliver Twist”. Good one for an encore. Actually, I made that lyric up, but to be honest it wasn’t much better than that. It seemed to be another case of cramming a known story into a classic power metal framework with as little depth as possible. Moreover, jolly and pulsating as it is, I’m not sure I can equate this style to a story about survival and starvation. It’s nonsense. “March 666” had the makings of another cliché by virtue of its title alone. It did not disappoint, at least in terms of my rather low expectation. There are sirens and speeches. Oh my god. “Wimpy war-themed song” would cover it. Does “All For Metal” sound like a cliché? Yes. This piece of Euro Trash achieves it in every sense. Let’s move on. “The Rebellion of Lucifer” brings in some welcome power and edge, although I’d hesitate to call it edgy. Still, it was the best of what I’d heard, and even the growling vocal section fits in to an altogether better structured and atmospheric track.
What seemed to be missing in this uninspiring collection was the obligatory power ballad. The title track was not it. In fact like “The Rebellion of Lucifer”, it had power and strength. “We must fight fire with fire” would not qualify for the original lyrics award but in the manner of Helloween, Masterplan, Brainstorm and others of a similar ilk, it has a driving force and magnetic attraction about it. At last “Diabolica” was taking off. “The First and Their Last” took it down a notch by being weak and a cheesy piece of Europop, but not offensive or unpleasant as indeed none of this album is. I then had a vision when listening to “Ararat”, which I have had at a number of power metal shows. You’re half way through the set, everything sounds the same and there is a cranked up song, which has over dramatic pretensions. The band plays on and grandiose gestures are made, but it largely washes over me and maybe others too. It’s not actually completely forgettable as I’m perhaps making it out to be, and there is a Middle Eastern sound lurking through this hyped up dark drama, which does make it slightly more interesting. “Flying Fortress” on the other hand sounds clumsy, adds nothing and frankly was best left off the album. Then a fourteen minute track to finish. My concern at this prospect was unfounded. “Cursed in the Devil’s Mill” starts pompously so no surprise there, but steps up to a speedy adrenaline rush of power metal, which I must say was highly enjoyable. The song is a creative romp with clever switches of pace and atmosphere between all that energetic bombast and folksy acoustic passages. This is what we’d been missing. And better still, we were spared that mandatory power ballad so I am grateful to Iron Mask for that.
I guess if you like Hammerfall, At Vance and the like, then you’re going to like this and would be happy to see Iron Mask in support of their loftier power metal comrades. In general I do like the style but here’s the problem: I hesitate to use the word “clone” but too rarely does “Diabolica” come out of the blocks of an already hackneyed genre. In fact for the most part it buries itself inside it.
(6/10 Andrew Doherty)
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