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IRONBOUND
Serpent’s Kiss

Ossuary (2024)
Rating: 5.5/10

Conjuring the spirit of a Blaze Bayley fronted Iron Maiden, Polish act Ironbound releases its second full-length platter which is littered with crisp bass lines that Steve Harris would be proud of.

One gets the impression that the Iron Maiden nuances are intentional if somewhat derivative and the more the album powers on, the more it begins to labour. From opener ‘Doomsday To Come’ through ‘The Destroyer Of Worlds’ and ‘Forefather’s Rites’ and ‘The Healer Of Souls’ it’s just bass dominated gallop after gallop. Admittedly, I’ve never a massive Maiden fan, especially after 1988’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, so this sort of traditional metal can go two ways; straight to the heart or straight to the scrap yard.

Serpent’s Kiss is far from being a bad record but it is an album dominated all too heavily by the clattering bass and the rather generic rhythms. If you’re going to build your sound on tried and tested formulas then you’ll need something extra in there to stand out, and Ironbound just don’t have it. The band hasn’t progressed at all from their 2021 debut full-length, The Lightbringer, in spite of the fact the musicians on board give everything. It’s almost as if Ironbound as individuals are restricted due to the Maiden-esque framework they’ve built around themselves.

‘Holy Sinners’, ‘Vale Of Tears’ etc. all rattle with that familiar Steve Harris bass, but rather than energise me such tracks leave me cold and to ask why bands continue to vomit out such mimicry, especially from the weakest period of Iron Maiden. Sorry guys, but I found this one a struggle to sit through.

Neil Arnold

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