{"id":93010,"date":"2022-03-04T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T00:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=93010"},"modified":"2022-03-22T14:53:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:53:32","slug":"album-review-iron-griffin-storm-of-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-iron-griffin-storm-of-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"IRON GRIFFIN &#8211; Storm Of Magic (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"title2\"><strong>IRON GRIFFIN<br \/>Storm Of Magic<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" height=\"3\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"title3\"><span style=\"color: #c80000;\">Self-released (2022)<\/span><br \/><strong>Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/irongriffin_stormofmagic.jpg\" height=\"200\" width=\"200\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Back in 2019 I stumbled upon this Finnish band and their debut full-length album <em>Curse Of The Sky<\/em>, and can honestly say I wasn\u2019t sure about them. The production was tepid and the strange mix of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, 70s rock, doom metal and folky flirtation didn\u2019t excite me.<\/p>\n<p>Now, three years later, Iron Griffin returns and I\u2019m sort of back at square one. Waves of nostalgia creep in as proto-metal vibes surface, akin to finding an obscure 70s band on YouTube only to find that their other material is rubbish.<\/p>\n<p>Iron Griffin are familiar, similar, mesmerising yet annoying \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of fog n\u2019 foreplay as progressive streaks are applied. There\u2019s a leafiness, a mystical mist and occult flashes, but thankfully it\u2019s not the two-a-penny musings of the last witchy wizard stoner band.<\/p>\n<p>The female vocals of Maija Tiljander are haunting throughout, applying an ethereal feel, particularly on the clunky \u2018Unholy Epistle\u2019 or the more majestic yet stuffy \u2018Goddess Of The Moor\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>All instruments are the work of a chap named Oskari R\u00e4s\u00e4nen, clearly the brains behind such a project, and I get what he is trying to do, especially with the wistful folk murmurs of \u2018The Witch And The King\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>In a sense <em>Storm Of Magic<\/em> is peculiar, evoking wafts of Cirith Ungol, Pagan Altar and numerous eerie 70s rock has-beens who delved into esoterica. I\u2019m on board and in the circle, but at times bemused, left pondering the production but always intrigued by the murky strands it leaves behind.<\/p>\n<p>Iron Griffin surely can\u2019t be this low budget intentionally, but even so this second release does enough to tickle the taste buds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRON GRIFFINStorm Of Magic Self-released (2022)Rating: 7\/10 Back in 2019 I stumbled upon this Finnish band and their debut full-length album Curse Of The Sky, and can honestly say I wasn\u2019t sure about them. The production was tepid and the strange mix of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, 70s rock, doom metal and folky [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4755],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-iron-griffin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93010","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=93010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93011,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93010\/revisions\/93011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}