War ironing as tectonic plates shift in prophetic alchemy

IN his secluded chambers of the Supreme Metal Council near the Vatnajóull Glacier, Iceland, Geezer Butler has been muttering about many issues of concern: the production on the last Sabbath album, the misuse of the 'horns, and lately wondering if tectonic plate movement was his fault.

For tectonic plate movement is now being directly blamed by seismologists across the globe on Northern Irish band War Iron's lates ep release 'Of Prophecy and Alchemy'.

Butler has said to confidential sources that when he laid down the bass intro to NIB he had no idea the very earth would eventually be shaken by his inheritance.

Now, as 2013 draws towards in its autumn months whole continents are reverberating; plasma lakes are threatening to spew their fiery contents across land masses and entire species of whales have been left spasmodically washing up on beaches - all as a result of War Iron's double bass ultra-low frequency assault.

Title track of the new ep uses those two basses to bring slowed down, sludged out, deep vein throbbing; all resonating at a frequency that frankly would be intolerable to the inner ear if there was not some sort of structure, some sort of song, lurking within.

However, there is a brief flurry of something slightly faster than continental drift with their cover of The Naut's S.U.U.L. Coming from War Iron's formative years, when Marty and Baggy played with The Naut, this is marginally faster and flies by in the blink of a sloth's eye at less than four minutes...

Rounding off the three-track e.p is Angelgrinder, recorded live at Limelight2 in December last year. The song - and yes there is one there - shows that War Iron can produce that attack on your aural senses, and your sense of balance, within the confines of a live venue.

And, 'tis a wonder of any part of Ormeau Avenue is standing after these reverberations coursed through the foundations...

And here is the secret of good sludge: structure. Down-tune, play slowly is all well and good; but without a good structure of band and song it is just a low-end drone. War Iron's use of two basses (no namby pamby guitar widdling ) weilded by Ross and Dave, and the approach of changes in tempo - albeit small changes - that offers a unique take on heavy music.

From the birth of Sabbath in the late 60s there have been many descents down the musical scale, and many attempts to emulate some of the doom of Masters of Reality. The promise of War Iron is that one can chose to be a pretender or one can chose to be true sludge. On the evidence of this ep War Iron have chosen to be 'true sludge'.

Despite Geezer's reservations about planet wide destruction we know that the Supreme Metal Council shall engrave War Iron's Of Prophecy and Alchemy ep upon the sacred scrolls.

Of Prophecy and Alchemy's three tracks are available to listen to or download from wariron.bandcamp.com

A limited CD digi-pack version also available with a run of 100 only hand numbered with lyrics. (a nd yes you will need that lyric sheet!