Iron Hearse - Iron Hearse Review artwork

Rating: 7.7

Country: United Kingdom

Release Date: 2007

Track list:
1. Rocktopus
2. All Graves Empty
3. Blessed By The Anvil
4. Crown Of Doom
5. Wrong Remains
6. Black Tapestry
7. Chronovisor
8. Reactor IV
9. Gorgon’s Kiss
10. Eternal Frost
11. Ruins Of Doom (Live)
12. All Graves Empty (Live)
13. Winter Of Discontent (Live)
14. Chronovisor (Live)

Band Website: Iron Hearse

Iron Hearse - Iron Hearse

Grant Powell- Guitars, Vox
The Khan- Bass
Chris Young- Drums

It's an unfortunate, inevitable eventuality, one that attributes itself to the all-too-human impulse/foible to classify and organise. All styles of music will, at a certain stage of development, attract vast flocks of interminable pedants who derive gratification from forging illusory sub-categories and neologisms to label and stratify them. This leads, of course, to a purely academic cul-de-sac where indeterminate categories are endlessly differentiated into meaningless descriptors. Among this breed of contemptible bottom-feeders is the vilest variety of vermin- the sorry fraternity of pen-pushers which I am a part of. It's a fine thing, then, when a band exhibits sovereign disregard for such cerebral deliberation and affirms the primordial urgency of rump-kicking R'n'r. Iron Hearse is a band that makes no concessions to popular tastes and has scant use for the extraneous, ornamental bells n' whistles that adorn most cleverer-than-thou releases of our age, a band that hinges exclusively on well-worn standards- songcraft, melody and ingénue.

Of course, some of the fare presented on their debut platter may seem somewhat pedestrian to developed palates (and this reviewer can't help but feel slightly dismayed at the somewhat linear blues-rawk moves on numbers like “All Graves Empty”, which limp forth with all the imagination of later, haggardly AC/DC), but in its totality the record is pleasingly far from tepid. Opener “Rocktopus” is strident, assertive doom-rock akin to Voodoo Shock and Wall Of Sleep, propelled by robust-yet-swinging rhythms and an exceptionally warm guitar tone that recalls the most recent Dreaming recording. Of further interest, of course, is the positively MONUMENTAL closing riff, a mammoth walloping of Dopethrone proportions, as well as the distinctively Weinrich-flavored leads, a sloppy, spontaneous and serpentine style that spills and bleeds all over the song proper. Elsewhere, “Crown Of Doom” offers impressive dynamism and fluidity, “Wrong Remains” evokes the zeitgeist of Scott Reeder's Lunar Womb compositions (the guitar fills and transitions here are exquisite!), synthesizing callous punk immediacy with scintillating blues, instrumental “Reactor IV” flaunts some exceptional percussive chops, while album highlight “Black Tapestry” comes closest to rivalling vintage Wino, an instant vintage number that offers the perfect canvas for Grant Powell's garrulous, tumbling lead style. Of course, not everything reaches the same vertiginous heights, and I do wish the bass-playing ventured out of the pocket a tad more often, but the highlights on this record alone merit investigation.

In an epoch where critics and bands alike are engaged in a zealous quest to fashion novel new musical brackets, there is something to be said about bands that stubbornly stick to classical song construction and expression. Iron Hearse bear all the hallmarks of a soulful, sincere rock n' roll band, and though its disarming frankness can sometimes prove to be this record's bane, as a whole it is a wholly satisfying, consummately-expressed offering from one of England's foremost doom exports.

November 2nd, 2007