Iron Mask - Fifth Son Of Winterdoom (2013) [Japanese Edition]

×

Iron Mask - Fifth Son Of Winterdoom (2013) [Japanese Edition]

Close

Years back Dushan Petrossi was widely heralded as being the successor to the Malmsteen kingdom, largely based on his seminal effort with his other project Magic Kingdom in Metallic Tragedy. This honor was likely bestowed by a certain metal journalist with an eye to someone being a bit closer to the overall stylistic character of Neo-classicism within a largely traditional metal medium that has generally typified Yngwie's output, rather than the bombastic symphonic and operatic exploits of Rhapsody Of Fire or progressive quirkiness of Symphony X, as such a wider range would probably leave either Luca Turilli or Michael Romeo in a better place to claim such a title. But in Petrossi's defense, he's always been one to put his own twist on said style, and while he has stuck closer to Yngwie's model than the other two both as a technician and a songwriter, he's also made some strides into darker and more extreme territory, though that was beginning to change by the time Mark Boals joined the fold in 2011, and finally came to a head a couple years late with the release of Fifth Son Of Winterdoom.

While it should be noted that Iron Mask has always been a more conventional nod to the Malmsteen style than Magic Kingdom, this became even more so the case recently as Dushan decided to export his side interests in extreme metal to a third project dubbed Arms Of War, a fairly conventional thrash/melodic death metal project featuring his longtime go to person for death growls Roma Siadletski. Barring a few remnant elements in the instrumental department, Iron Mask has essentially shifted all but completely into a purely power metal oriented affair, sporting one of the more likely candidates in the lead vocal department in Mark Boals. The resulting feel of this album is actually somewhat close to where Boals was with Ring Of Fire just before the project was put on hiatus for about a decade, complete with some keyboard input by Andreas Lindahl of Wuthering Heights (who was also previously with this band for Shadow Of The Red Baron) that comes pretty close to Vitalij Kuprij's more outlandish proggy style than did the recently departed former Malmsteen keyboardist Mats Olausson (R.I.P.).

Apart from the intricacies in the game of musical chairs going on with Iron Mask's line up, Fifth Son Of Winterdoom is an album that is overall quite predictable and tends to play it safe, though song for song it is still quite solid. At first glance it would almost seem that even when compared with similarly styled acts such as At Vance and Ring Of Fire that Dushan and company have gone even further down the road of early 1990s Malmsteen worship, kicking off the album with a rather light-hearted and AOR tinged number in "Back Into Mystery", a song that could have easily made it onto Eclipse or Fire And Ice if it opted for a few more guitar solos. On a similar note, "Angel Eyes, Demon Soul" could almost pass for 1988 rock radio in the same way that Malmsteen's "Heaven Tonight" did, while the somewhat more punchy "Run To Me" delves into heavy guitar soloing territory to the point of all but mimicking said 80s guitar icon. Then again, a curiosity is found in "Only One Commandment" which ends up sounding like an early Dio number with a slightly smoother vocal delivery.

Similarly, when this album veers off into less conventional territory, it tends to find itself in a similar place as that of its predecessor Black As Death. Calling up the East Asian folk instrumentation and musical cliches yet again, this time opting for the Japanese variant, Iron Mask delivers a faster and occasionally power/thrashing bruiser in "Seven Samurai" that still can't help but remind of "Genghis Khan" despite the tempo difference. The title song also finds the return of Dushan's occasional forays into Celtic folk music territory, only this time clocking in at over 10 minutes in length and about twice as much melodic development and noodling. Perhaps the only notable difference is this department is the lack of a church oriented number, though the Spanish guitar infused, down tempo epic "Reconquista 1492" picks up the slack in said department, and along with the haunting epic of a closer "The Picture Of Dorian Gray" represent the most ambitious composition work this time around.

There is definitely a fair amount of ambitiousness still abounding in Petrossi's songwriting arsenal, but this is something of a step back from what took place on Black As Death. For every slightly refreshing break with tradition, there's a nagging and even somewhat contrived reminder that Iron Mask is the safer quarters in Dushan's estate, and this is perhaps underscored in "Like A Lion In A Cage" which kicks off with yet another musical paraphrase of Malmsteen's "Trilogy Suite", followed by the usual, run-of-the-mill speeder that reminds heavily of "Fury", "Rising Force", and any number of other faster songs out of Yngwie's past. It's a definitely boon to the true believers that have stuck it out since the earliest Iron Mask albums, but fans and non-fans alike would be correct in asserting that this is one of the weaker efforts out of Dushan's now extensive catalog.

by hells_unicorn, metal-archives.com

×

Iron Mask - Fifth Son Of Winterdoom (2013) [Japanese Edition]

Close

×

Iron Mask - Fifth Son Of Winterdoom (2013) [Japanese Edition]

Close

×

Iron Mask - Fifth Son Of Winterdoom (2013) [Japanese Edition]

Close