Showing posts with label Ironwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ironwood. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Ironwood/Aletheia Contra Veritas/2020 Single Review

 


  This  is  the  final  review  of  a  recording  from  Australia/U.S.A's  Ironwood  which  shows  the  music  going  for  a  progressive  mixture  of  folk  and  black  metal  and  the  single  was  self  released  in  2020  and  called  "Aletheia  Contra  Veritas".


  Clean  playing  starts  off  the  single  before  going  into  a  heavier  direction  while t he  riffs  also  add  in  a  lot  of  melody.  When  the  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  can b e  heard  along  with  the  vocals  being  a  mixture  of  clear  pagan  singing  and  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.  


  Throughout  the  opening  track  you  can  also  hear  a  decent  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  while  the  music  also  has  its  progressive  moments  and  the  second  track  is  an  acoustic  version  of  the  first  song.


   On  this  recording  Ironwood  returned  to  a  lot  of  their  black  metal  roots  as  well  as  continuing  to  expand  on  the  progressive  folk  metal  direction  of  previous  releases.  The  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  heathen  Traditions.


  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  ironwood  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  progressive  folk  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  single.  8  out  of  10.


  https://ironwoodsound.bandcamp.com/album/aletheia-contra-veritas

Monday, December 26, 2022

Ironwood/Well And Tree/2016 Full Length Review

 


  This  is  a  review  of  another  recording  from  Australia/U.S.A's  Ironwood  which  shows  the  music  going  for  a  progressive  style  of  folk  metal  with  elements  of  black  metal  and  the  album  was  self  released  in  2016  and  called  "Well  And  Tree".

 

 Water  sounds  start  off  the  album  along  with  some  acoustic  guitars  a  few  seconds  later  while  clear  pagan  vocals  are  also  utilized  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording.  All  of  the  tracks  are  also  very  long  and  epic  in  length  along  with  the  solos  and  leads  also  being  done  in  a  very  melodic  style  when  they  utilized.


  At  times  the  music  also  gets  very  progressive  sounding  while  the  heavier  riffs  also  add  in  a  decent  amount  of  melody.  When  the  music  speeds  up  a  decent  amount  of  blast b eats  can  be  heard  along  with  all  of  the  musical  instruments  on  the  recording  also  having  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.


  Tremolo  picking  can  also  be  heard  in  some  of  the  faster  riffing  and  also  brings  in  elements  of  black  metal  along  with  the  songs  also  adding  in  a  decent  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  as  well  as  one  tracks  also  adding  in  a  brief  use  of  spoken  word  parts.  The  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  animistic  and  mythological  themes.


  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Ironwood  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  progressive  folk  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Song  Of  Mimir"  and  "The  Glorious  Tree".  8  out  of  10.


  https://ironwoodsound.bandcamp.com/album/well-and-tree  

Ironwood/Live At The Lovecraft/2013 Live Album Review

 


  Ironwood  are  an  international  band  with  members  from  Australia  and  the  United  States  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  on  this  recording  plays  a  progressive  form  of  folk  metal  with  elements  of  black  metal  but  goes  into  more  of  an  acoustic  direction  with  this  rleease  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2013  album  Live  At  The  Lovecraft".


  Live  audience  reaction  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  acoustic  guitars  a  few  seconds  later  which  also  brings  in  elements  of  folk  music  and  also  returns  on  the  later  tracks.  Clear  pagan  vocals  are  also  utilized  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording  and  most  of  the  tracks  are  also  very  long  and  epic  in  length.


  All  of  the  musical  instruments  on  the  recording  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  while  the  acoustic  guitars  also  ad d in  a  good  mixture  of  both  finger  picking  and  full  chords.  Elements  of  neo-folk  can  also  be  heard  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording and  all  of  the  music  also  sticks  to  a  slower  direction,  spoken  word  parts  can  also  be  heard  briefly.


  On  this  recording  Ironwood took  songs  off  their  previous  releases  and  took  all  the  extreme  metal  and  progressive  rock  elements  out  and  focused  more  on  an  acoustic  direction.  The  production  sounds  very  dark  while  the  lyrics  cover  Heathen  Traditions.


  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Ironwood  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  pagan  folk  metal  and  neo-folk,  you  should  check  out  this  live  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Origin"  "Love  In  Death"  and  "Infinite  Sea".  8  out  of  10.


  https://ironwoodsound.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-lovecraft

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Ironwood Interview


1. Can you introduce the band to my readers, give us a brief history and how you started and what you are doing nowadays?

Henry Lauer: Ironwood was founded circa early 2006. We worked for about a year rehearsing material and released an EP in early 2007. Then followed an intense year of endless performing in the Australian metal scene. After some truly epic struggles we released our debut full length, :Fire:Water:Ash:, in 2009. By that point, however, we already had a second album well on the way to being written, and late last year we recorded Storm Over Sea. Of course the Ironwood recording curse struck again, and we were delayed in our release by almost a year! The consolation being that along the way we ended up with the incredible privilege of getting Dan Swanö as our mixing and mastering engineer, which really served to bring Storm Over Sea to a high polish.

Now, with the new album finally out, we are undergoing a period of evolution within the band. I am excited to see what will come next.

2. How would you describe the musical sound of the new album, and how do you feel that you have progressed from the previous releases, with the new one?

HL: It’s a lot heavier than :Fire:Water:Ash:, and more compact. We wanted to go for the throat this time around, but with a concern not to abandon our use of atmosphere and acoustic instrumentation either! And our progressive influences have come to the fore a lot more too.

This album is the best representation we can create of the ocean in all its mystery, terror, glory, and changeability. Storm Over Sea is a really dynamic, dramatic, trance-inducing, gut-wrenching, soothing album. Not an easy thing to draw together such disparate moods but somehow I think we managed!

Matthew Raymond: The new album also had far more attention given to arrangements and layers within each track. Similar to the previous album it is bound by a focused theme and is richly dense in material, however, we feel this release is far more accessible to listeners while still challenging them.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and concepts the new album covers, and how does it differ from the past releases?

HL: Well this is definitely a concept album about the ocean, so naturally there is a much tighter thematic focus to the lyrics than we’ve had previously. That said, we wanted explore the ocean symbolically. For example, the first words on the release are “I am but a ship on the infinite sea…and the name of the sea is Woden!” This is a reflection about just how puny the human ego is compared to the archetypal forces on which we haphazardly sail! And it’s also incredibly personal for me, though trying to explain it succinctly would be…a little too much to ask, really!

One recurring motif in the lyrics is that of journeying, voyaging, transforming, submitting to the challenges of wyrd or fate and finding a way to work with the ocean’s whim to survive, rather than breaking on it out of hubris. Most of the band went through our Saturn Returns in the process of making this album…it definitely shows in the lyrics!

But underlying all of that is sheer, naked reverence for the ocean. Ironwood has always made nature worship a central theme for our music and for this release we really wanted to draw peoples’ attention to the ocean. If we influence a few folks to become more proactively “green” as a result – well, so much the better, the oceans of this planet need all the help they can get.

MR: Oceans show such power and chaos often juxtaposed paradoxically with reflection and calm. It is in that which we were inspired to develop this album. Lyrics touch on life turmoil, friendship, overcoming trials, inner strength, responsibility and awe and respect of nature to name a few.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the band's name Ironwood?

HL: The Ironwood is a forest from Norse mythology. It’s a dark place where wolves and various giants and beasts arose and make their lair. It’s also a route from Midgard to the Underworld (and from there…to Asgard).

We take the Ironwood as a symbol, submitting to the unconscious, to darkness and mystery, so that we may descend deeply – and then rise into a transformed spirit. This is an idea that celebrates all extremes of emotion and experience, and as such it is perfect for the music that we write.

5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

HL: My favourite show would have to have been our album launch in Sydney for :Fire:Water:Ash: last year. Wow! That was an awesome night. Very precious and special.

Our stage performances are extremely intense. We tend to go – utterly nuts and out of our minds. People think that we’re possessed, my eyes roll back into my head, weird stuff goes down! And yet at the same time we happily pull out acoustic guitars and the like here and there, and somehow we manage to seduce even the really grumpy metal heads to the idea that vocal harmonies and neofolk atmospheres are a good thing.

I suppose you could say that, like everything else about this band, our live shows are a wild mix of extremes. Sadly…for the immediate future a live band we can no longer be due to personnel metamorphoses…but eventually we’ll be ready to call down the gods of inspired lunacy once more!

MR: On the road as outsiders to the town we play in, there is even a more heightened state of energy that always directly transfers to our shows. Performances are often described by listeners as not simply a band that plays music, but a collection of souls that are seen performing a ritual invoking forces of old. The dynamism of the album's music is represented live... tenfold.

6. Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label and if so what kind of record label do you think that would promote Ironwood's music to the fullest?

HL: We’re certainly open to label interest, particular the more maverick labels such as The End, Profound Lore, Bindrune, etc. But at this point we don’t expect to ever be anything but an independent band, so we aren’t holding our breath. We’ve become a pretty effective little self-sufficient unit, although of course a big promotion budget and proper distribution would be lovely!

MR: In the past there has been smaller label interest, although the terms were not acceptable at the time so we have continued to progress independently until the right circumstances present themselves. As Henry said, additional promotion and distribution support for what we do can only be a good thing.

7. Are there any side projects besides the band, or is this a full time group?

HL: There are various side projects, but nothing with the magnitude and seriousness that Ironwood represents. Most active of the various side projects at the moment would have to be Greed & Rapacity, a very inventive, twisted black metal outfit ( HYPERLINK "http://www.myspace.com/greedrapacity" http://www.myspace.com/greedrapacity for more info).

8. How has your music been received worldwide by folk/progressive metal fans worldwide?

HL: Well to be honest it hasn’t been out long enough to really say! We’ve gotten some fantastic, fantastic reviews early on, though, so I’m hoping that is a good indication of what the verdict will be.

MR: Going off the previous release, really positively. At a local level, we have a very loyal fan contingency, turning up to every gig we play, purchasing all the merchandise. Some have followed us for some time and become close friends highlighting how likeminded some of our fans really are. We also receive comments and orders from many countries over the world and often wonder how word travelled there!!! At the end of the day, the following we have is growing. I'm digging the response from some of the recent reviews of Storm Over Sea!

9. What kind of musical direction can we expect from future releases, what direction would you like to take the band into?

HL: We’re working on a third album, again with a concept, at the moment. I think at this point gathering back in some of our more atmospheric influences, which were played down somehow on Storm Over Sea, is the intention, although now that we’ve set ourselves such a high bar for complex, technical material I’m sure we’ll have to retain at least some of that to keep the tech-heads smiling!

The general themes of spiritual transformation, nature worship, and journeying will continue to be the guiding impulses for our musical output. Album number three will be a kind of non-linear exploration of archaic Heathen cosmology, but naturally using this as a metaphor to reflect on all manner of things.

Beyond that…we’d like to do an all acoustic, atmospheric album…a totally furious, distilled black metal release, and there are ideas beyond these too! Essentially we feel that Ironwood can travel into any kind of musical territory that we feel we need to explore.

MR: For the next release as Henry said, more use of atmospheric ambience...

10. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music, and also what are you listening to nowadays?

HL: Early on the influences were black metal, neofolk, even ambient and progressive groups. We’re talking Ulver, Emperor, Agalloch, Enslaved, Storm, but also Tool, Isis, and Pink Floyd. Over time that’s evolved to introduce 1970’s progressive and folk bands like Jethro Tull, Steeleye Span, and Gentle Giant into the mix. So at this point we have this black metal / neofolk basis, with richly layered clean vocals, a variety of instrumentation, heavy use of naturalistic samples, and lots of really progressive touches. Some reviewers have heard a death metal element to the new album too, which we didn’t intend, but we’re big fans of Death and Dissection so it isn’t so surprising from that point of view!

I’ve been listening to the new Stargazer album (genius!), the new Enslaved, the new Agalloch, Sig Ar Tyr, Voluspaa, as well as neofolk releases by Awen and Art Abscons. I have also been dipping back into Bathory and Pavor of late. Oh, and an old favourite, Depeche Mode!

MR: Sculptured (other band by Don Anderson of Agalloch), Dengue Fever (Contemporary 60's influenced Cambodian psychadelic rock) and Magma (70's French Jazz and progressive rock fusion band), Secret Chiefs 3's Xaphan and Ulver's Blood Inside.

11. What role does Paganism play in the music, and which form of paganism does the band follow?

HL: For me personally as a Heathen – someone working from the pre-Christian Germanic traditions – well, my spirituality is integral to my creativity. In the larger sense the band would not call itself “pagan” as such, although our lyrics and musical concepts with their emphasis on nature, trance, and spiritual exploration would all appeal to someone of “pagan” leanings. I guess on the whole we’re less interested in labels and categories than in expressing something meaningful.

Germanic imagery and symbols do tend to slip into our lyrics – hence “Infinite Sea” which touches on the impact of Woden in my life, or “Will to Live” which has plenty of runes coded into its verses!

Wearing another hat I edit Hex Magazine (http://www.hexmagazine.com), which is probably the foremost Heathen periodical in the world today (at least in my humble but biased opinion).

MR: It is about a connection to two things...the land/ nature and an ancestral bloodline. These things inspire and strengthen all that I do in life and music. There is a spiritual connection to these things and they are absolutely central to what we have created.

12. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

HL: Obviously nature is a big one! My work with Hex also stands out, of course, and that in turn leads to my literary pretensions as well! Words and music, especially coined in the wilderness, that’s the meat and drink of my creative expression.

MR: Given my connection to the land I spend most of my time re-connecting, through hiking, rock climbing, kayaking and simple meditation in Australian bushland. I recently came back from a mountaineering expedition in Nepal climbing well over 5,000 metres.

13. Any final words or thoughts before we close this interview?

HL: We decided to make Storm Over Sea available for free download from our website at http:// HYPERLINK "http://www.ironwoodsound.com.au" www.ironwoodsound.com.au . Why? Because last time the pirates had :Fire:Water:Ash: on their little boards about two breaths after we released it. Since we can’t beat them, we figure we should at least steal their thunder and let them waste their time. That said, we’re trusting you all to check it out, decide if you like it…and if you do, please buy a copy! It is worth it just for the very lush booklet and packaging that we’ve put together…and to know that you’ve supported a band that is truly dedicated to its art.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Ironwood/Storm Over Sea/2010 CD Review


  Ironwood are a band from Australia that plays a very progressive form of folk/black metal and this is a review of their self released 2010 album "Storm Over Sea".

Drums alternate between slow, mid paced to fast drumming with some blast beats being used at times, while the bass playing has a very strong and powerful sound that is very progressive at times with a lot of bass leads being thrown in at times.

Rhythm guitars alternate between slow, mid paced to fast riffs that combine viking/black metal with traditional metal with a good amount of melodies being used at times, while the lead guitars are very melodic sounding guitar solos that also have a classic rock feel to them, as for the acoustic guitars they  mix elements of folk and progressive music together to give the music a very haunting edge.

Vocals are a mixture of high pitched black metal screams and clean singing vocals, while the lyrics touch on Heathen Values, as for the production it has a very heavy and professional sound with all of the instruments coming out with a great sound to them.

In my opinion Ironwood are a very original folk/progressive/black metal band and if you are a fan of bands that mix these styles together, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS "Infinite Sea" "Weather The Storm" and "A Bond To Sever". RECOMMENDED BUY.

ironwoodsound.com.au
www.myspace.com/ironwoodband