Ironhand - Poison

Though in more recent years Heretic Prime has gained more notoriety with his blackened industrial metal band Sarcophagic he has been creating music under his solo project Ironhand for more than a decade now. His earliest release under Ironhand dates back to 2006 according to his Bandcamp and is titled Reprimands for the Weak - a collection of early instrumental tracks/demos from the early years. The music making machine hasn't stopped since then and has released multiple albums, EPs, singles under the Ironhand name with some songs, such as 'My Factory', being remixed and remade under Sarcophagic's name. 

In more recent years, Ironhand has established a connection with goth/industrial record label Xperiment XIII who has released both Ironhand's previous Slenderman based album Hello, Operator as well as Sarcophagic's album Birth of the Betrayer. Between both projects you should have enough material to make your ears blister for the next while. However the fun continues as Ironhand has just released a brand new album titled Poison. 

Somewhat playing with the themes of the record label's asylum setting, Ironhand began off Poison with 'Containment Breach' which is basically a cinematic presentation of Heretic Prime breaking out of some sort of holding cell. From there we dive into a vast array of raw industrial/black metal inspired songs. 'Satan is My Bitch' is a track title that I did not agree with as it sounded as if it were trying to be too edgy, but the overall sound was shredding and destructive.

From there most of the tracks can be laid in comparison with 'Satan Is My Bitch' as a combination of heavy guitars, slamming percussion, and all out warfare. Some of my favorites included 'Desaturate Everything' whose crunchy notes and cinematic/ambient backings really shook me well, and 'She's Terminal' where there was never a moment that let up the cacophony. 

There were also two other tracks that stood out from the rest with unique manners. One of them was 'Echoing Ghost' which only lasted around three minutes. That being said the scratchy percussion and moderate pace of the track provided a decent intermission. The other track that I held high was 'She's Got the Scratches' which had matching piano and guitar rhythms in a playful, horrific manner.  

Ironhand's Poison  is a neat little dive into smoe raw and otherwise noisey songs from Heretic Prime. There is a concept behind the album one in which, I would imagine, is a unique experience based on a listener to listener basis. The experience is awesome, the sound plunged me to the very depths of Hell, and I liked it. It did not win me over as much as some of Heretic Prime's other work, but it's still a solid entry in his discography. 
Mar 08 2017