IRONFLAME has released their fifth album, “Kingdom Torn Asunder”. What an amazingly great album this is. For those who don’t know IRONFLAME, they are a power metal band that follows in the style of European metal, like Helloween and Hammer Fall. While they are a band, that label might be a bit misleading. In the recording process, Andrew D’Cagna does it all, except for the guitar solos. That being said, IRONFLAME is a band based out of Ohio and plays live shows. For fans who already love this band, they continue to deliver just what you would expect, great hard driving power metal with thunderous rhythms, great guitars and leads. The guitars provide some wonderful lead accents over some great rhythm guitars. The album is produced great with a good mix between the vocals and all the instruments.

“Blood and Honor” leads off the album, starting with a fast repeating lead riff that is heard throughout the song, like after verses and leading off the solo. The rest of the song kicks in with a thunder of a rhythm. There’s a great change in rhythm, before the solo starts, and then changes again into double kick rhythm for the solo. After the first three songs start with repeating lead riffs, the forth song, “Mistress of Desire” changes it up a bit with a great power chord riff. The lead solo is great with melodic lines building riffs that shred at the end. The vocals are outstanding, on this song about women and temptations that bring you down. “Sword of a Thousand Truths” has a great chugging rhythm during the verses, then changes the feel for the chorus. It also has a nice breakdown and slower pace leading into the solo, which is nicely balanced between melodic shred licks. “Riding the Dragons” has a quick power intro and then it is right into the song. This is another great driving metal song and, as the name suggests, about dragons used in battle. Many songs on “Kingdom Torn Asunder” have typical power metal fantasy themes consisting of war and battle, honor, and dragons.

This album is available on CD and vinyl. However, the CD version has two bonus songs. Both of the bonus songs are just as good as the rest of the album. That’s the advantage of CDs. There’s more room for more songs. It has been suggested that is the only reason for leaving them off the vinyl. Although, these two do seem to have a different vibe to them. “Exile of the Sun”, the second bonus track, has a simple but effective bass line underneath a clean guitar line. The song has a slow lumbering feel and switches from clean to crunchy guitars a couple of times. It is a nice slow heavy type of song. “Kingdom Torn Asunder” is a great power metal album filled with tight hard driving rhythms, great lead guitars, and outstanding vocals.