Iron Reagan – The Tyranny of Will (Relapse)
Wednesday, 3rd September 2014
Iron Reagan’s second album, The Tyranny of Will, is the type of album that will work you into a frenzy. A metallic crossover group that takes ‘80s thrash and hardcore/punk in equal portions and spews out grindcore-length songs at you with all of the necessary recklessness and vitriol. Yet another “supergroup,” featuring members of Municipal Waste, Cannabis Corpse, and Darkest Hour, a previous exposure to the band’s split with Exhumed left a bit to be desired with a ultimately too short blast of songs, but here in the full-length format, Iron Reagan bring everything to the table.
With 24 songs in 32-minutes, ranging from the 12 second “Your Kid’s An Asshole” to lengthy (for the band at least) closer “Four More Years,” clocking in at 4 minutes, prepare for short and unrelenting jabs for songs. What is interesting about these tracks though is how the band more often than not tosses some hooks into the songs. Savage riffs often lead the songs, and occasionally the band even finds time to toss in a guitar solo (“I Won’t Go”). When old school thrash rears its head on tracks like “Broken Bottles,” look out, because those riffs are razor-sharp and deadly. Other things like gang vocals, some clean-er vocals, and the occasional melody (“Obsolete Man”) also come together to keep things a bit more memorable than you might be led to believe otherwise.
Ultimately, The Tyranny of Will succeeds because it pushes the pedal down and never eases off for the entire runtime. The subtle and not so subtle melodies are an added bonus, but this is the type of album you can have some fun with (“Eyeball Gore”) and thrash around like there’s no tomorrow.
