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I admit this release from Iron Magazine, a band comprised of members from Danko Jones and Circle, falls close to (if not completely over) the dividing line between Heavy Metal and Hard Rock but there is an audience for less extreme stuff so here goes. The EP is titled Queen of Hell which is a good start but what about the songs? Spacey, late 70s/early 80s Hard Rock with forays into Metal is how I'd describe the music. You've got some standard guitar/bass/drum riffing, keyboards and weird effects and just a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor (the song "665" exemplifying this last point). Listening to Queen of Hell is, for me, like a mash-up of AC/DC, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Black Sabbath around the end of Ozzy's initial tenure. It's melodic and catchy but also weird and defiant of genre. They even work some near-Death growls into "Rise of the Deth", so this is not a Yes album by any stretch.

Here's the deal; if you have no room for anything but Heavy Metal in your mix, just move on, there's nothing to see here. If you grew up in the 70s (like me) or enjoy Hard Rock, Iron Magazine is just different enough to be worth a listen.