1983. Metallica unleashed Kill ‘Em All, Iron Maiden let loose Piece of Mind, Motley Crue set free Shout at the Devil, Dio unveiled Holy Diver, followed by more landmark releases from Accept, Manowar, Ozzy Osbourne, and Saxon. As well as career defining milestones, these artists and their records all shared another thing in common; the sheer magnitude of sound and pinnacle of talents. 2017 saw Brazilian band Ignited embark on a quest to retrieve the traditional heavy metal sound that once flourished on the airwaves, but 2020 was the year that the armour clad quartet took their first steps into the untamed wilderness with their full-length debut offering Steelbound.
Foot on the accelerator, hand on the brake, key in the ignition. ‘Ignition’s immediate fuzz smothered guitars have Dalton Castro strumming viciously along to Maurício Velasco’s assault of drums. But the main focus is drawn to Denis Lima’s high register vocals akin to Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, slicing through the surrounding atoms like a warm, exceptionally sharpened knife as it slides through butter, the blade carving you open if you dare to even take a glimpse at it. A warmer chorus has no effect on the cold steely blizzard evoked from Lima’s vocals as each high note renders you taken aback and, beneath a searing guitar solo, the drums and Sama Benedet’s bass pummelling does not let up.
A lower vocal register for ‘Pain’ introduces a grittier edge similar to that of Dio, before Castro performs a guitar solo that’ll make you believe pigs can fly as the notes squeal like a hog soaring through the air above, a barrage of drums and bass slotting into a niche groove beneath that act as the catapult. ‘Steelbound’ pays homage to the music genre that has enslaved us all after selling our souls for rock n’ roll, bound and tied within the unrelenting confines of steel and metal. Drum fills and tumbling rolls and the vocal articulation and expression of Bruce Dickinson means that it wouldn’t take much to imagine this track camouflaging itself on Iron Maiden’s Powerslave record.
‘Living in the Dark’ holds high a lighter riff, the flame being the only guide as you navigate a dark and dreary cave, before it’s extinguished and you are plunged into total darkness. Isolated guitar delay feedbacks flicker across the heightened senses like the panicked attempt at morse code, the efforts rendered in vain.
Thrash metal drum and bass gallops trot into ‘Call Me To Run’ whilst kicking up mud from the ground beneath their hooves, and vocal harmonies that could be heard from across a ravaged, blood strewn battlefield. Hammering into overdrive, ‘Roaring Gears’ acts as a pissing contest for the guitars, bass, and drums to determine who can play the fastest whilst still keeping it melodic and decipherable. It’s a close competition.
An atmospheric change enters the room as ‘Times’ clean guitar strums and ballad-like bobbing bass lines offer a soft landing to cushion the fall down from the previous tracks, melodically in-line with the ballads of 80s stadium rock. Natural harmonics open ‘Shining Void,’ the lyrics “I swim into the shining, between the fire and frost, I’ll find out who I really am,” borrow fantastical and mythological quest themes from the power metal cousin of heavy metal.
Steelbound is a collection of tributes to the giants that birthed and refined a larger-than-life genre, ending with the trash and occasional death metal elemental ‘Rotting,’ with an evil and more sinister tinge to Lima’s vocals that could foreshadow a darker path on Ignited’s journey. If the start of the album is the knife that’s thrust into your abdomen, then ‘Rotting’ is the slow, final twist that drives it home.
Steelbound is available not across all streaming platforms, and to stay up to date with band information and tour dates, click here or visit their social medias linked below.
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