With a sound that could hardly be more epic or triumphant if it arrived in your ears wearing a horned helmet and brandishing a bloody broadsword, Wolftooth are clearly keen students of heavy metal’s illustrious past.
Blood & Iron is the Indiana band’s third album in less than four years, and despite that rigid adherence to metallic first principles these tracks demonstrate how malleable the genre is in expert hands.
Opener Ahab is a mighty doom colossus, but with progressive undertones that evoke the spirit of the first two Iron Maiden albums. Squarely in the thematic realm of heroic battles, Broken Sword brings stoner rock clangour and the muscular pomp of US power metal together, while The Voyage is a sublime blend of unashamed Sabbathisms, garrulous galloping and 80s melodic hooks.
Vigorous proof that the best ideas never get old, Wolftooth already have their parking space at Valhalla booked.
