{"id":102192,"date":"2024-01-12T00:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T00:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=102192"},"modified":"2024-01-24T12:47:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T12:47:29","slug":"album-review-iron-front-hooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-iron-front-hooked\/","title":{"rendered":"IRON FRONT – Hooked (2024) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

IRON FRONT
Hooked<\/strong><\/span>
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\nCreator-Destructor (2024)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s good to see that these Oakland, California-based youngsters have crafted a second album in the form of Hooked<\/em>, and comes after the decent 2022 debut Left Out To Rot<\/em><\/a>. The five-piece started out in 2016 as Dire Wolves, before morphing into Iron Front in 2019. I do think the name change is relatively un-deathly, but the music most certainly is.<\/p>\n

Despite this sophomore outing running for just 22 minutes it packs quite a murderous wallop. Although there are slam elements \u2013 something I\u2019m never fond of \u2013 there are plenty of old school infectious riffs to digest. There are hints of Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Skinless and 200 Stab Wounds as the quintet rattles off each track like meaty machine gun fire.<\/p>\n

Drummer Max Mahmood frantically slaps his sticks like some maniacal killer stabbing a victim, although it\u2019s more a case of tin-pot tumult than out and out bludgeoning. It\u2019s all gore-soaked, guttural and somehow groovy in its unhinged assaults. It\u2019s also interesting as to how Iron Front injects hardcore elements too, adding a further ingredient of savagery, but for me it\u2019s the slower deathly grinds which get the saliva dripping.<\/p>\n

The opening brutality of \u2018Slug Rounds\u2019 is a fine example of such grotesque churning, as are the closing chugs of \u2018Pig Splitter\u2019. Vocalist Topey Plourde has a really slurping premise to his vocal style, as if he\u2019s gasping though clots of phlegm and blood in order to puke over the monstrous riffage that in turn grinds off large clumps of juicy flesh.<\/p>\n

I stated that it\u2019s all too short of an opus, but there is still plenty of chunkiness to chew on; the eye-gouging slop of the title track, the rabid pulverisations of \u2018Burned By A Crack Pipe\u2019 to the goofy goo of \u2018Intestinal Siphon\u2019. It\u2019s all good gory fun from the pustulous posse and an ideal way to spend 22 minutes without getting off the toilet.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IRON FRONTHooked Creator-Destructor (2024)Rating: 7\/10 It\u2019s good to see that these Oakland, California-based youngsters have crafted a second album in the form of Hooked, and comes after the decent 2022 debut Left Out To Rot. The five-piece started out in 2016 as Dire Wolves, before morphing into Iron Front in 2019. I do think the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-iron-front"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102193,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102192\/revisions\/102193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}