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Blood & Iron: Voices of Eternity
Blood & Iron Voices of Eternity CD Album Review

Blood & Iron: Voices of Eternity

Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal
4.5/5.0

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Pure Steel Records
Words: Craig Hartranft  Added: 18.09.2014

In the past, most everything pitched to me from India in the metal genre has been from the extreme end, like black and death metal, something I have no interest in. And this even seems weird considering the Indian culture and principal religion, both of which I've considered to be basically benign and peaceful. Perhaps that's the very factor for the prevalence of death metal: somebody needs to work out their demons.

Blood & Iron Voices of Eternity Band Photo

Blood & Iron: & trees.

Bangalore's Blood & Iron is no such band. There chosen metal is essentially classic melodic heavy/power metal, ranging from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to it's German and American counterparts. They even toss in some prog metal nuances, nothing pretentious or overly technical, but there are some twists and turns. Often it comes with injection of lighter moments with acoustic guitar or lighter electric guitar and vocal segues. Good examples come at the start with Eternal Rites and Your Own Voice, but also later with Ghost of a Memory, a large number and definitely guitar laden.

Those twin guitar parts of Ashish Shetty and Vikram Bains definitely form the foundation for most every arrangement. They definite like their riffs to be both sharp and melodic, and their leads enthusiastic and soaring. The vocals, provided by guest vocalist Giles Lavery (Dragonsclaw), are clean, strong, and aggressive, without being harsh, when necessary. Another thing you'll notice is that recording is uncluttered, nearly spartan, but still remains bright and crisp. This unadulterated approach reminds of early Eighties metal rocking out and headbanging tunes trumped fancy production tricks. All these parts play out well for some of the more assertive power metal numbers like Redemption Day, Underground Rebellion, and Burning Bridges giving them a tough metal sound while still tempered by solid melody.

I did have some problems with digital promo. It appears that, against the actual album list, the songs are out of order. Track four called Legion seems to be Redemption Day; track nine which on the album list is Redemption Day is actually Underground Rebellion. This makes for a larger problem in my review: it's possible every song I referenced as an example to a point being made is entirely wrong. I'm not sure what's going on. Nevertheless, Blood & Iron is still on to something very good, strong traditional heavy/power metal. Recommended.


Blood & Iron - Your Own Voice


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In Short

Strong traditional melodic heavy and power metal, powered by twin guitars, from India. Who could have imagined such a thing. Recommended.

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