The Black Map #223: Iron Tomb from Birmingham!

Feeling the effects of the night before, pints of Guinness chased with shots of Jägermeister, we turn our attention to this weeks look at a band from the United Kingdom Underground Metal scene for a feature that we like to call The Black Map with a couple of Anadin Extra and a can of a well known high caffeine energy drink. Seven days ago we spoke about Progressive Death Metal deities Mercury’s Well from Reading and gave their self titled album a little more of the  spotlight it deserves so now it’s time to head to Birmingham and speak about Iron Tomb.

Hailing from arguably the home of Heavy Metal (if you follow the narrative that Black Sabbath were solely responsible for evolving the sound from Hard Rock) perhaps brings a unique pressure but with their debut EP “Vile Retribution“, Iron Tomb show none of it. A record that defies the term debut thanks to high grade musicianship with sonic influences from Old School Florida style Death Metal and lyrical ones from Power Metal. Listening to the record is like listening to Deicide play DragonForce covers as themes of swords and sorcery explore battles in an evil fantasy World in throat shredding uncleans against a backdrop of blast beats and whammy bar action. That’s all made possible thanks to the skills of Owen Davies who recorded, mixed and mastered at Loud Noises Productions (Netherhall, Kill The Witch), taking the raw material and making it sound great!