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Sometimes taking a little break helps appreciate things more later. I was not overly impressed by "Creed of Iron" the first few times I listened to it a few months ago - at least compared to some of their other releases. I recently took it out again and it just sounds better now. The album contains only 5 songs but totals a little over 44 minutes - consider that the first song is a (very anthemic) 2:34 instrumental intro, and you have a collection of 4 epic songs on this album, all with Graveland's atmospheric signature sound. Once again using keyboards effectively rather than annoyingly, with anthemic chants and war-like drum sounds, the whole album gives you a feeling of being in the medieval war times depicted in the cover art.

There isn't much variation possible with Darken's vocals, pretty much low-pitched and somewhat monotone growls, yet sounding a bit agonizing or even despaired at times. And as usual I can't decipher them, making the presence of the lyrics in the booklet even more important. Unsurprisingly, the lyrics essentially deal with war, bravery and pride. The lyrics fit the music like a glove - make it the soundtrack of war if you will. Ok this won't be in a Hollywood movie anytime soon, but you get the picture. Graveland is not so much about musicianship as it is about the feeling that you get from listening to the music - the music HAS feeling. To me this is more important than musicians trying too much to play technical and who end up forgetting that they're writing a song. The songs on "Creed of Iron" are not too different from each other, something that would normally bother me, but this album just feels like a 44 minutes voyage through medieval war times. Graveland is one of the rare bands that, in my opinion, are capable of accomplishing this, and this album once again shows what they can do. A must for Graveland fans, a very good buy for anyone else into this type of music.