Iron Head in Piąty Dom
Published:
Iron Head is a Polish heavy metal core band. I saw them play at Piąty Dom in Katowice, Poland. While the band was not the headliner for the evening they absolutely stole the show.
Discovery
I found Iron Head in my Spotify recommendations, and instantly knew that this is it. Sometimes, when I hear new music I think to myself "Holy fuck, this is incredible!" This was one of those times, which was surprising, as usually, when I see "core" added to a genre name I stay away. I personally do not enjoy the screaming vocals, and the core music also tends not to mesh well with me.
However, despite their self-description as "heavy metal core" Iron Head makes awesome music. The guitar, bass, and drums provide a heavy metal foundation; it is fast and powerful, not distorted, melodic, and delivers a solid fucken sonic kick. This piqued my curiosity.
And then the vocals grabbed my attention, and did not let go until the end of the gig. Weronika Lenart has a crystal-clear voice and superb diction, but she does not sing in the slightly annoying opera-style. This is exactly what heavy metal should sound like in my opinion! Don't take my word for it, though, and just listen.
The whole mix, both music and vocals, is a perfect combination. It sounds familiar and unique at the same time.
I immediately went to see if they have some concerts upcoming, and they did! A few weeks in the future and seven hundred kilometres away. Not that this would stop me—I just hop on the Autobahn and go. Three weeks later, I found myself in Piąty Dom waiting for Iron Head to start playing.
Concert
Spending hours on the road was totally worth it.
There are studio bands who just can not cut it live, but Iron Head definitely can. More than cut it, they just ripped it in two (literally, being the second, middle, band in the line up).
From the first riff to the last echoes left hanging in the air after they stopped playing the music was perfectly executed. As it should be on a metal concert: fast, strong, delivered with gusto. The kind of stuff that makes you bang your head, raise your fist in the air, and demand more! (Which is what the audience did.)
To my astonishment, the vocals were even better live than on the recording; with a somewhat different "shade" and a more raspy quality (fair enough, given the environment)—not like Maria Brink's voice and certainly not like Kovac's, just a tiny bit.
I am looking forward to the next one!
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