Playthrough: “In The Grip Of Nightmares” from Iron Kingdom!

Continuing to demonstrate the evolution of their sound, Vancouver Canadians Iron Kingdom have shared a drum playthrough video for recent single “In The Grip Of Nightmares” which finds Max Friesen gracing the drum stool. Having originally started out as a Hard Rock act, they’ve been on a crusade through Progressive Metal and now with their forthcoming fifth album “The Blood Of Creation” have transcended both genres to deliver something of Traditional Heavy Metal with dark lyrical themes orientated around myths, historical events and fantasy books. The single “In the Grip Of Nightmares”spins off a character in Michael Moorcock’s “Elric of Melnibonè” book series. The album drops 4th November with pre-orders available over at bandcamp.

The band explains further: “We started writing this song during the ‘On The Hunt’ sessions back in 2019, however, the song had a different energy than the rest of the album so we decided it would be best to come back to it at a later date. In late 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown, we took a second look at what was to become ‘In The Grip Of Nightmares’. We rewrote the tune to be what it is today. It tells the tale of the legendary sentient sword ‘Stormbringer’ and its relationship to Elric. The two are bound together by fate. A fate that twists Chaos and Law, and leaves Elric in the grip of nightmares. Musically, this song is relatively progressive, I’d say it has some Helloween and Fates Warning like feelings. It is quite fast and driving, but also quite melodic with lots of leads and solos.”

Drummer Max Friesen also adds about the track: “This song was one of the first we worked on as a group. It was one where I tried to make a good first impression haha. The kicks go for quite the gallop at a middle tempo so It’s a bit of an endurance run with full leg motion. I tried to feature both rides in this track and took influence from a cymbal riff by Amanda Osterman from the song “At The Gates” off of the 2013 album ‘Gates of Eternity’.”

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