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Denmark powerhouse, Iron Fire, has been around for a long time and I guess there's a good reason for that. Perhaps it's just about the integrity of their stuff, creating music without any compromises and straight from their heart and very soul, without caring whether it would receive mass acceptance or not.

Among the Dead is the title of the band's eighth studio album, and their first for rising Norwegian label Crime Records. Since the days of Iron Fire's well-received previous album, Voyage of the Damned, the band's line-up has become a three-piece. Gone are both bassist Martin Lund and drummer Fritz Wagner. Fritz's place behind the drum set was taken by Gunnar Olsen, who banged the skins on Iron Fire's 2000 debut album, Thunderstorm, and vocalist Martin Steene took the opportunity to play bass on this new album.

Among the Dead sees Iron Fire operating on a heavier side of Power Metal; Kirk's grooving, chunky and kind of modern-sounding guitar parts seem to play a big role on these songs, and how could one not pay attention to Martin's raspy vocal style (which at times reminds me of Ville Laihiala's, yes, of Sentenced/Poison Black fame), which is accompanied with some occasional semi-death grunts between the songs here and there. Martin's vocals fit well into the band's groovy and musically heavy and mean-sounding Power Metal. The concept behind Among the Dead, just like the album title pretty much indicates, is about warlike themes of apocalypse; about the ultimate wars that will end it all for the human race.

The bottom line is the band's entertainment value is really high on Among the Dead, and I am certain many of these songs will go well in the live setting too. Iron Fire also chose to do one cover song for this record as bonus – and what cover song would have fit any better into the album's concept than "For Whom the Bells Toll" by Metallica. At that, they do a good job, but don't really give any extra value or underling importance to the original song either. 

As the last words I can only say that Iron Fire are still going strong, as Among the Dead proves so evidently and so strongly.