Saturday, April 9, 2011

Riddle Of The Skies

Here we have the final recorded material by the almighty Iron Age. 'The Saga Demos' cassette of 250 released by the bands vocalist, Jason Tarpey's label, Cyclopean.
Recorded in the bands practice space before they decided to break up, what's on offer here was to be part of their next full length. Really well recorded tracks, it would have been such a shame had these never had the chance to see the light of day.
It amuses me to no end how much douche bag NYHC kids get all weird about how this band progressed over the years. They seemed to alienate so many dudes with the second LP and this tape. What was once a good cross over NYHC inspired band is now pretty much more or less a blown out thrash metal attack. These guys started doing drugs and just got more and more experimental. When you break it down though, what's going on here isn't a huge leap from the first demo and LP. The exact same kind of riffing and ideas, just much longer song structures, slower tempos, and a slightly more metal recording. Jason's vocal progression through the catalogue I think is what seems to confuse most kids. With the earlier stuff his approach was arguably that of just another hardcore vocalist in the pack (though I was always fond of his pipes from the very beginning), whereas in comparison now you've got some pure 80's thrash, death shit. High rasps, gruff lows, Araya esque wails. He sounds like a troll under a bridge. Sodom, Death etc eat your heart out. So good. These guys always garnered comparisons to Obituary. To be honest though I never really understood that one. Put it down to clueless hardcore kids using a limited knowledge of anything metal that isn't directly hardcore releated in some way.
RIP great band. So pissed I never had the chance to see them live.

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