Blood Red Victory

With a sound that features copious double-kick drums, huge, hooky choruses and guitar work that alternates between crisp riffing and acrobatic leads, you might think Ironflame is a European band. Instead, they a group of corn-fed Ohio boys that clearly absorbed everything they could from bands like Hammerfall, Wizard and Primal Fear along their metal journey. Blood Red Victory is their third album and is full of songs that drill your eardrums with heavy metal thunder track after track after track. "Gates of Evermore", "Honor Bound", "Blood Red Cross"; there's not a bad song in the bunch. The guitar tone is sharp and the production clean without robbing the playing of any power. This one is for "true" metal fans of every stripe.