Blood & Iron: Power Metal raises its epic fist in India

India does not lack musical talent. If you look beneath the deceptive talentless surface of beat-bastardized,simplistically created indipop 'music' that is doing very well to reduce the overall IQ of the country,there's no dearth of talent. Especially in the metal circuit. Gone are the days when bands were cheered on for covering favourite songs of people in the crowd. Now bands like Kryptos, Demonic Resurrection, Acrid Semblance, Bhayanak Maut etc, are making the effort to write orginal music and are getting BRILLIANT responses for it. And that's happening in almost EVERY sphere of metal: Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, Nu-Metal etc. Now I say ALMOST because, barring Bangalore's Slain, there was no word of a SINGLE Power Metal band in India. Even Slain are TOO busy preaching Christ to the public using a very generic NWOBHM/Old School version of the genre. Its not bad music, but Power Metal's 'Power' comes from its very EPIC sound. But breathe easy fellas, that aspect has been taken care of very well.


Say hello to Blood & Iron from Chennai. They are epic in every sense of the word. Long songs, atmospheric keyboards, driving,marching fretwork and aggressively melodic and powerful vocals. Their songwriting is a sort of amalgamation of old school and new wave power metal, with groove and thrash-influenced instrumental moments (occasionally). Their sound is very rightly an original one, reminiscent of many styles, but doesn't let you conclude that they follow only those styles. Their lyrical themes range from history to spirituality to personal struggles. And who knows what else they could conjure up. They plan to release a concept album as debut. I personally hope it carries forward the World War II theme heard in 'Stalingrad'. I'll be damned if I don't buy that album. And I hope they come to Delhi regularly. Listen. Indulge. Surrender.