Ironflame - Where Madness Dwells

I was promised sea monsters on the cover.

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on March 29th 2022) 

There’s something really nice about bands evolving. It doesn’t have to be a radical shift in tone from one project to the next necessarily, but seeing an artist mature and grow in different directions, progressively expanding or changing their sound is always a treat. It’s for this reason that I’ve enjoyed following Ironflame over the past few years. Their transition from classic era Maiden worship towards high-energy, fist-pumping tunes has been quite the treat to observe, and Where Madness Dwells is yet another step in that direction, a successful one at that.
Following 2020’s Blood Red Victory, the band has decided to further up the ante in terms of intensity, with more than a few songs here veering off into power/thrash territory. It’s something that was hinted at with some of the more upbeat moments of the previous record, but this newfound aspect of Ironflame’s sound is in full swing here. Tracks like “Under the Spell”, “Ready to Strike” and “The Phantom Flame” are absolute rippers, with Andrew delivering what might just be the most high-octane riffing he has penned to date. They’re a perfect blend of power metal’s melodic sensibilities and thrash’s more in-your-face character, as evidenced by the ascending lead riff on “The Phantom Flame”, or the staccato palm muting on the chorus to “Ready to Strike”. He basically took everything I liked about Blood Red Victory and took it to its logical conclusion.
That being said, the album isn’t comprised exclusively of face-melters, and features a good amount of variation, featuring more than two types of songs this time around thankfully. Where Madness Dwells has some traditional galloping tracks, such as “Under the Spell” and “A Curse Upon Mankind”, which, while I do find them to be lacking compared to the rest of the album, they definitely help keep things fresh. What really takes the cake in terms of variety though are “A Funeral Within” and the title track. Both of these tracks are sailing epics, with a much lower tempo compared to anything else here, but the way they’re executed just makes them work so well. The former is a very dreary and dramatic piece, with acoustic guitars appearing during the verses, as well as some ascending lead work, whereas the latter has a martial pace to it, with some propulsive double-bass rolls near the end, making for a strong closer.
The production is also quite solid, even if it hasn’t changed compared to the band’s previous work. They’ve found a sound that works perfectly and they have stuck to it, and I can’t really fault them for it. Everything sounds bright and full, with the guitars’ heft in particular being more pronounced than ever thanks to the thrash influences, and the drums help drive the music forward, each hit sounding powerful without taking centre stage, all while the bass plonks away in the background. It’s not reinventing the wheel, nor does it have to.
That being said, despite Ironflame nailing the fun factor on Where Madness Dwells, I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed to an extent. For one, the songs, while more varied than they were before, they still suffer from using the same structure, regardless of tempo. It’s always the same verse-chorus-bridge-solo format, and it gets predictable by the time you reach “Kingdom of Lies”. It’d be cool to see some more ambitious songwriting in the future. Also, in what turned out to be a shocker for me, not every chorus here managed to land. There’s only one outlier here, and that’s “Ready to Strike”. It’s just, so simple, with a rather plain “woooah” part and then the title of the song. They’ve written better, and they’ve done it on this album too, so I can’t help but wonder why that one specifically turned out to be so bland.
All in all, Where Madness Dwells is yet another collection of bangers from one of my favourite power metal bands currently around. While Ironflame’s formula does start showing hints of diminishing returns after 4 releases, they still have a lot of fire in them, that hopefully they can manifest into more ambitious songwriting that takes them in new territory.

Also this new logo is a goddamned tragedy and has “Mediocre fantasy game from the 2000s” energy, which I hope isn’t a reflection of where they’ll be going next. The world’s in a bad enough spot as is, we don’t need more boneless power metal on top of all that.
Highlights: A Funeral Within, The Phantom Flame, Where Madness Dwells

Rating: 82% 


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