Hutch gets all Heavy as he checks out the upcoming new album release from Scottish Riff Masters Iron Altar!

Standing near the Jagermeister stage at Bloodstock on Sunday 13^th August 2023, there was a sudden tremor across the ground. I was waiting for a friend so that we could watch Megadeth bring the weekend to a close, but this was too intriguing to ignore. Crammed onto the miniscule stage was Iron Altar. A five-piece from Edinburgh, they were indeed responsible for the seismic sound waves that were being emitted from the fourth stage. 

Their performance was enough to make a note and when their second album arrived in the review list, I was sure to grab it to explore in more detail. Iron Altar have been plying their trade since 2016 and bring a sound of gargantuan proportions. It’s a heady mix of styles, featuring huge hooks, visceral breakdowns, and jagged riffs that could cause infection if you crossed them in the wrong manner. 

Vocally, they are a bit marmite in flavour. Andrew Callis favours the big, roar with gruff, gravel-soaked delivery. It works for the heavy-duty sound, but some purists may not welcome it. That’s their loss for I can’t see a better fit to comply with the savagery that his band mates unleash. Like fellow countrymen Dog Tired, they straddle genres, with big, sludgy riffs that are laced with elements of doom, death, and groove metal. From the explosive opening track, The End, there is little respite. Arrive at the punishing central track Path to Empyrean, which switches from Crowbar driven riffs through to the fast-paced mid-section, and then the swampy final part with double bass kicks and harrowing screams. Then we have a different approach completely, with the thunderous bass kick driven power of Megalith which leads us into the second half of the album. It’s Miasmic Intuition, a boot stomp to the face, which brings everything back to focus. It’s a brute of a song, classic metal combining with Gojira and Mastodon in a fuzzed-up swamp of riffs and power. A seven-minute leviathan that grabs the attention, it’s a centrepiece of the album and although it’s been done before, it really does drive hard. Iron Altar play it cool, bringing in a short instrumental in the dark, smouldering shape of Shanidar, which provides the necessary bridge to final track Primal Rites. It pays to finish with a flourish, and this one is no exception. This is visceral stuff, chopping guitars cross over the battering of Linz Mackenzie Conway whilst the pulsing bass lines of Greg Armstrong really come to the fore. It’s a punishing conclusion to an album, of which this band should be rightly proud.

 Iron Altar – Promethean is out via Trepanation Recordings on September 29th