You should have a pretty good idea from the cover artwork of Iron Front’s sophomore effort Hooked of what sounds are about to come blasting out of your speakers once you hit play. The California based band has backed up that gory cover with a combination of brutal death metal/slam and hardcore influenced death metal that seems oriented towards non-stop mosh pits. It does have a few moments that are a little rough around the edges and some of the tracks run together, but the short length and sheer intensity on display does prove to be surprisingly catchy and will have fans of the genre coming back for more.
To Iron Front’s credit, they’ve kept things brief with a twenty-two-minute run and seven tracks, which keeps things moving and prevents their songs from feeling too dragged out or repetitive. Each one emphasizes a variety of blasting and slamming grooves, and you’ll know this is a slam-oriented album as soon as you hear that first snare drum strike as it has that familiar ping. But there are also some old-school hardcore influences that sneak in too with some of the guitar work, and this combination of hardcore leaning death metal and slam gives Iron Front a slightly different sound compared to the slew of other younger bands in the genre. Opener “Dissolved in Resin” gives a complete picture ofthe group’s core sound, as they move from pummeling mid-tempo grooves into faster blasts and move seamlessly from brutal death metal tonality into more of an OSDM one around the half-way point. The end of this song pulls in a bit more hardcore in its drum work, but by the time “Slug Rounds” kicks in they’ve pivoted right back to death metal. Admittedly even though Iron Front shakes up the formula from track to track, some of the shorter songs still tend to blur together as the chugs and blasts do sound similar even if they appear at different times. “Pig Splitter” and “Intestinal Siphon” have been the songs I’ve returned to the most, as they have some of the filthiest riffs and sections that really stand out on repeat listens. “Dissolved in Resin” also is a bit rough around the edges, as it sounds like the drums are getting off-tempo from the rest of the band during a few sections and the bass pops out in a weird way, but thankfully this doesn’t end up being an issue for most of Hooked.
Vocalist Topey Plourde has the type of growl that’s perfectly suited for Iron Front’s sound, as it comes through with plenty of gurgles and reverb. There’s quite a bit of variety to the performance too, as the primary style is a gurgled growl, but there are moves into even lower guttural pitches, hardcore yells, and even some higher shrieks at key moments. It’s this type of detail that helps some of the songs stand out a bit more, and Hooked even brings in some guests on a few of them to switch things up even more. Bodybox’s Harrison Brown is featured on “Burned By a Crack Pipe”, while Kane Tagami and Gerardo Alejandro Rodriguez from Manos De Fierro appear on “Pig Splitter” and “Slam of ’87”. Each guest has subtle variations from Plourde that make their respective verses stick out, and it’s nice to hear them well utilized. Iron Front also has included some samples on some of their songs that tie into their lyrical content, and admittedly this is an area I wasn’t as crazy about as they don’t really add that much. The exception to this is the title track though, which uses some clips from Mortal Kombat that do fit well.
There’s a lot to like about Iron Front’s sophomore effort, and they do seem to be getting better with each release. The production is appropriately raw and dense, hitting you in the chest when needed but also letting some grit in, and the songwriting has all the brutal chugging grooves and blasts you could ask for. It does start off a little rough with some quirks on “Dissolved in Resin” and the songs do still blur together despite trying to shake things up, but overall I still like what the band has to offer here. Don’t expect it to stand out for months and months to come, but it’s a fun and heavy hitting listen that brutal death metal fans will dig. Hooked is available from Creator-Destructor Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg