Firmly riding the crest of the ‘pine-scented metal’ wave, Ironwood hove into view with a hugely ambitious and confident second album. The Australian four-piece spare no expense or sonic texture with a record that spans prog, post-rock, black metal, folk, ambient and even AOR at times. There really is an enormous amount going on in ‘Storm over Sea’ - an abundance of ideas have been hurled into the pot and it takes a good few spins of this album to fully grasp the coherence of the various disparate segments.
OK, so it’s clear that these guys like Agalloch - the same pastoral blend of acoustic segments, rasping vocals, clean chants and deployment of chiming, delay-soaked leads at times reaches pastoral levels - but Ironwood cast their net even further than the Portland outfit. The thought and investment that has gone into this album is quite startling and, to the band’s credit, the results are sometimes startlingly good. The ‘post-metal evolving into folk’ jam that kicks in halfway through ‘Weather the Storm’ is wonderfully restrained, the monastic choirs booming over the main riff of ‘Will To Live’ deeply stirring and the vocal-driven opening few minutes ‘A Bond to Sever’ are evocative and passionately delivered.
The competence of these men cannot be faulted - the guitar work exemplary (the solos at the end of ‘A Bond to Sever’ are incredible), the 6 string bass of Henry Lauer dexterous in the extreme, the drums very well played. In addition - and this is a key point - the clean vocals are excellent. Far more prominent than the black metal shrieks, there are frequent passages of overlaid harmonies, counterpoint choirs and deeper chanting, all of which are delivered confidently. Even ‘Share the Burden’ (which occasionally falls foul of the whimsy folk track of sounding like REM crossed with The Cranberries) demonstrates a real vocal talent.
So with all these ingredients firmly in place, it frustrates me to bring a ‘but’ to the table - nevertheless, despite the musical and creative talent present here, there are moments whereby they just push it TOO far and the collision of so many disparate styles jars. The occasional lapse into noodly prog-metal territory disturbs the flow and more importantly, the atmosphere. Some of the black metal sections feel a little forced as well and you really do get the impression that Ironwood are far happier when cracking out the acoustics and chilling out. Minor flaws for sure but ones that prevent a bloody good album from being a bloody great one. For a self-released album, this is still amongst the most accomplished I’ve come across and fans of Opeth, Agalloch and the like would do well to give these guys more than a few minutes of their time.
http://www.myspace.com/ironwoodband
