Given the metal pedigree of the members of Iron Lamb, the surprise of this release is that it’s not really metal. When you have members, current and former, of bands such as General Surgery, Scurvy, Repugnant, Dismember, Insision, Bombstrike, Tyrant, and Dellamorte, I expected to be smacked upside the head by some full on Swedish death. But there is something else very enjoyable here instead.
While it’s not metal, it is very good punk and roll, which is how the band’s press release refers to this, and that’s as good a way to describe this as anything I can come up with. Listening through The Original Sin took me back to my holy trinity of Motorhead, Ace of Spades, Iron Maiden, Killers, and Saxon, Wheels Of Steel, which I discovered my junior year of high school and which started me on my metal path. If any of those 3 albums mean anything to you, Iron Lamb is right up your alley.
Band members Johan Wallin, Grga Lindstrom, Thomas Daun, and Daniel Ekeroth (who wrote the most excellent book “Swedish Death Metal”) have crafted a set of songs that for the most part put the pedal to the metal, but also throw in a couple of tasty changeups. This is the kind of CD I’d like to take on a road trip when I have a long way to go but a short time to get there, because it makes you want to mash the accelerator and see if you can get a 100 miles under your tires before the CD is over.
The album comes out swinging with “Rotten Wood/Original Sin”, “Dubious Preacher”, and “Our Demise”. Then, a cover of Motorhead’s “Poison”, which fits right in with the previous tracks and makes you wanna find a moshpit to jump into and spill your beer all over your fellow pit denizens. “Suicide” keeps the energy level at 100% and features some tasty guitar playing. As you would expect from a release like this, there’s an anti-social fist to the face with back to back tracks “I Don’t Wanna Be Like You”, and “I Don’t Like You”.
A little bit of change of pace comes from “Iron Lamb, Dead Inside”. There’s a literal change of pace in tempo, more of a sense of melody than you normally find in this style of music, and an interesting set of lyrics. This is followed by bonus tracks “Another Miserable Day” and “TBC”. I’ve never really understood the whole idea of bonus tracks on a release like this, because in my opinion “Another Miserable Day” is one of the stronger tracks on this album. So I guess I would say that when you buy this, make sure you get the version with the bonus tracks.
All-in-all, this is quite a ripper of an album and one that I was happy to find and definitely happy to recommend. It’s got the punkier side of NWOBHM down pat, has some very good guitar licks and solos that are not over the top and fit perfectly with what the music is doing, and if you have a pulse at all it is impossible to put this album on and not move something. Music is supposed to move us, and Iron Lamb accomplish this in a very visceral way. What more do you want?
-- ODIN
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