– Written By ❄️ Mark ❄️
You know it, you’ve seen the cover image everywhere, and just to save you time yes it is in fact that good.
True Iron Will is a band hailing from Austin Texas who before this album I actually had not heard of and had the fortunate experience of finding in my local record shop on a whim, a wise Fenriz once said something along the lines of “Big sunglasses, cool band” and upon seeing the cover itself, I knew I had to bite. Once I got it home and onto the turntable, I was greeted with an album that has much in common with “Carelian Satanist Madness” by Satanic Warmaster in some aspects musically, but mostly in approach of composition. Both of these albums and what makes them so good in my eyes, is when listening you are not greeted with something necessarily original or groundbreaking, but rather a band taking a framework at its most base level and making the best possible album within that formula, it does not unnecessarily try to fix something that is not broke. Take the title track for example, which I would cite as my favorite on the album structurally is quite simple, straightforward blast beats and black metal riffing in the intro and verse, GBK esque riffing for the chorus, another verse and chorus combination which are reminiscent of GBK, before going back to the blasts with a solo than ending. While it is a simple structure, the riffs found within this structure are both clearly very well thought out and are highly memorable and emotive, sticking within a listen or two quite vehemently.
This not to say the album lacks musical depth either, the closing track for example “Cross of Fire” which clocks in at over 8 minutes (In comparison to the other tracks which clock in at around 3-5 minutes), incorporating some Burzum esque Keyboards to create a certain atmosphere but not overstaying its welcome or creating a contrast that does not fit with the rest of the album, it creates a fitting mood and works as a closer, adding onto what the rest of the album does compositionally but expanding on it just enough to make it that more interesting. The album has a nice balance of grit with songs such as the title track and “”Upon Iron Wings” and some atmosphere with “As the Blood Flag waves” and and the aforementioned “Cross of Fire”
Overall, just like many, many, many (did I say many) folks within the underground have said over the past year with an extreme fervour, True Iron Will is a band much worth checking out if you are a fan of not only black metal, but extreme metal in general that combines traditional black metal riffing with 80s NWOBHM sections littered throughout.
Overall Rating- 89/100
For fans of: Satanic Warmaster, Judas Priest, Grand Belial’s Key, and Sargeist