Ira is like Isis, Neurosis, Pelican, and all that instrumental stuff I’ve had a casual interest in for years, as you should. I like good drone, and this has it.
Straight-served, some Clash worship and touselled hair, but also a crappy b&w booklet. From Greece, Britain, and Orange County, and you can hear the geography.
The style is more Meshuggah than Hatebreed. The roar is immense, the guitars compressed and precise (they’re Swedish, duh), and the drumming mind-boggling.
Jennifer Herrema was in Royal Trux with then-husband Neil Hagerty. Their drug abuse was legendary, but the tunes were good. This is so bad, it’s embarrassing.
Cosmic exploration juxtaposed by fuzzy riffery, cerebral vs he-man thud, dig? Jazzy prog wank and repetitive, slow builds, and you’ve got a bit to smoke up to.
Strengths are many, top being the butt-shaking riffs. Keyboard washes are a nice touch, but alas, vocals are generic hollering and the production is plastic.
Dirt stomp swagger, soloing wide-stance and cock-hard, pounding the skins and shots hard all night long, man. Singer Andi Schmidt has a bit of Wyndorf in him.
That amazing voice is female. Laura Nichols, she’s got the goods. The fretboard-hopping fills and singing leads are classy. The drummer is a freakin’ beast.
I have a soft-spot for some of this. Not an ironic, winking love, I mean I like and respect it, goofy or not. But Wolf is more Hammerfall than Sonata Arctica.