Iron Age

Iron Age's aesthetic is just plain heavy -- as if they were dredging sludge directly from the bottom of an oil well. But start to peel back the harrowing layers and it's clear that their amalgamation of old-school hardcore and thrash/down-tuned-doom is well executed. Tracks like "The Way Is Narrow" and "A Younger Earth" are textured, fuzzy and calculated, while "Burden of Empire" and "Dispossessed" revive thrash with galloping speeds and wailing solos. Throughout, the underlying foundation is tempered with early hardcore's muddy sound, structure and vocal style.