ONE YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T MISS IN 2010: IRON THRONES’ THE WRETCHED SUN

With all the blabbering on we did about the Scion No Label Needed Contest in the first half of this year there’s no way you missed hearing about Iron Thrones, a band so deserving of winning the contest that my faith in the intelligence of the average metalhead on the Internet is [somewhat, almost] restored. But it’s very possible that amidst all the Internet noise you never actually got to listen to the resulting album, the positively fantastic The Wretched Sun. Uncle Vince here to remind you about it just in time to compile your year-end “best of” lists.

Here’s the simplest way I can describe Iron Thrones; they channel the spirit of Opeth — with a distinct sense of musicality and bent for the progressive, often atmospheric — but they do so with a modern awareness that takes into account all the best metal that’s been made since Opeth first started making waves. There are really no misfires at all on The Wretched Sun; the songwriting concise, the playing top-notch, the arrangements just right, and the production crisp, clear but full of life. In short, everything is tasteful.

This band has an incredibly bright future ahead of them if they can stay the course. It’s weird that no labels have stepped up to sign Iron Thrones given all the exposure they received from the No Label Needed Contest and their phenomenal talent. But there it is, and the company that pays for CDs to be manufactured really matters not in my opinion; The Wretched Sun is undoubtedly one the best metal albums released in 2010.

Check a few tracks from The Wretched Sun on MySpace. There’s also a live version of album-closer “…And The Sun Came Falling Down” posted here, recorded in Pennsylvania just 3 nights before I saw them lay waste to NYC’s Lit Lounge only a couple of weeks ago. Lastly, read the interview I conducted with guitarist Steve Henningsard following their No Label Needed Contest victory.

-VN