Ensiferum
Iron

THE REVIEW

From the moment I heard the first song of this CD, I immediately sensed that this album would be very different from what I had imagined; indeed, this "Iron" highlights the more melodic and Celtic part of Ensiferum, and also for this reason it differs from their debut "Ensiferum," a much more aggressive album.

The first track "Ferrum Aeternum" is an instrumental Celtic ballad, very catchy and well constructed. From the second track, which is the title track "Iron", you can understand the change in sound that has occurred; in fact, the song proves to be much emptier (like the whole album) compared to the tracks of the previous album, devoid of choruses in the refrain it does not live up to expectations. As you might have understood, in the whole album that melodic-vocal part (sing-along choruses and catchy melodies) is missing, which made this group one of the best in the viking-folk genre. Thus we come to the third track, "Sword Chant", which like the previous one, while being a good track, never reaches the pinnacle of beauty because it doesn't have a fully catchy main part even though the guitar riffs by Markus Toivonen are excellent from a technical point of view.

The fourth "Mourning Heart" is the melodic introduction to the fifth track "Tale of Revenge". The latter is the true hit of the album with catchy melodies and a good refrain where Petri Lindroos shows that his vocal qualities allow him to switch from growl to clean voice (the refrain is very well chosen). The following "Lost in Despair" is a good song that starts with a melody that flows into a slow electric guitar riff, nothing more, but still a good ballad. "Slayer of Light" is the most aggressive and direct track of the album, it starts with a powerful riff that is soon accompanied by guitars and scream, the song overall is good (nice chorus) but it's not very original.
"Into the Battle" is the most epic track, it starts with a choir that is soon accompanied by an excellent riff that serves as an intro to the piece (very fast-paced). The drums, as always fast and dynamic, form the base for the guitars that lead us to a very beautiful refrain, too bad it isn't sung in a choir. The next "Lai Lai Hei" in my opinion is the track we could expect the most from early Ensiferum, as it follows the path taken in the first CD, for this reason for me it's also the best: the chorus sung in a choir makes me miss that masterpiece of "Ensiferum".

Here we are reaching the conclusion of the CD with the final surprise, "Tears", the ballad in question is indeed sung by an excellent female voice accompanied by sweet melodies and perhaps even too syrupy for Ensiferum.

This CD leaves a bit of a bitter taste, compared to the debut album, "Iron" is more complex and requires more listens to be fully appreciated... All in all a good album that however fails to reach the beauty that everyone hoped for after a wonderful debut.