Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Iron Will.
Iron Will who?
Iron Will kick your ass.

How much do you like your 70s hard rock and 80s metal? If you're like me and consider them the best thing that ever happened, here's some good news. JB, the vocalist/guitarist of the Swedish band Grand Magus is with you on that too. What started as a phenomenal blues heavy riff based doom on the first album kept evolving over the next two, becoming heavier, at times faster, and overall more epic metal. While Monument is probably still going to be my favourite album of theirs, Wolf's Return is the one for you metalheads.

The fourth album, Iron Will continues to see the band evolve. As far as lineup goes, Seb is the new man in since the old drummer quit back in 2006. But sonically, there's more than a passing resemblance to Dio's matchless recordings with the Blacker and Iommi, and many of these vocal harmonies are completely droolworthy if your favourite Deep Purple albums include the Mark III ones at the top. 80s metal is another influence on this but what completely signals the chequered flag for me are the Michael Schenker influenced leads by JB. The flying V and the half-cocked wah should be enough to imagine how big a disciple of Schenker's he is, but JB's phrasing and vibrato on this album are his best yet. Every solo is a song by itself and every solo is fucking awesome.

The Shadow Knows begins like Scorpions' one-chord-riff masterpiece Blackout, but also goes on to sound like a classic Dave Mustaine song on the verse. By the time Beyond Good and Evil, the second last song is on, you're absolutely convinced about a few things. The band is even capable of writing a metal anthem with just one riff, with the power of the heavy motherfucker of a groove, the unmatched singing, the solo and not to mention the greatness of that single riff itself. The album closes with just the enviable sounding drums pounding, joined a little later by the bass, almost sounding like something on the latest Riverside. The song in question is I am the North, and it is again a lesson in writing heavy, catchy and groovy epic doom with a load of That 70s Sex. As always with the band, this album has the perfect runtime of 38 minutes (without including the short hidden track). Classic stuff.

Year of Release: 2008
Label: Rise Above