Review Summary: Iron Mask adapts very well to a change in vocal performance to release their most focused album yet.
Iron Mask has always been an impressive band. With blazing speed, wide-ranged vocals and melodic passages, their musicianship and skills of composition is quite noteworthy. Long-time fans will know this, of course, and on their fourth album,
Black As Death, they've pulled out all of the stops to provide an exhilarating listening experience for fans old and new.
Dushan Petrossi's
Iron Mask has gone through a change since the last incarnation, which appeared on Shadow of the Red Baron in 2010. Specifically, Goetz "Valhalla Jr." Mohr, long time vocalist, has been replaced by Mark Boals. A change in vocalist is always grounds for worry in heavy metal music, and Mark Boals obviously has a voice which is far from the one heard on Hordes of the Brave. Fortunately, this is not meant in a bad way: his voice works better than Mohr's ever had. It is soaring and energetic, with enough kick to keep the listener enthralled throughout the lengthy release.
If there is one term to describe Iron Mask's playing style, it would be energetic. This band performs incredibly well in their up-tempo songs. While their slower songs, such as
Genghis Khan are also quite good, they unfortunately never reach the soaring heights set by tracks such as
Blizzard Of Doom. Fortunately, they stand up well enough on their own merit as to not bog down the album with unnecessary or boring tracks. The ballads,
The Absence and
Magic Sky Requiem, are highly emotional and among the better tracks on the album.
A welcome improvement over Shadow of the Red Baron is the incorporation of extreme vocals. While they felt tacked on in
Ghost of the Tzar, they appear in a more organic and fitting nature in
Black As Death and
Nosferatu.
Overall, Black As Death proves itself to be a well-crafted, thoroughly enjoyable hour of quick, engaging, memorable neo-classical metal, and comes highly recommended to any fans of power metal.
Pros:
+Infectious and memorable
+Speedy and fun
+Mark Boals provides Iron Mask with their best vocalist yet.
Cons:
-The slower tracks, while still great, are weaker than the quicker ones
Highlights:
Broken Hero
The Absence
Blizzard Of Doom
Nosferatu
Lowlights:
God Punishes, I Kill
Genghis Khan
Rebel Kid
