"Swedish Iron" is the debut album from TUNGSTEN AXE, a band all about the traditional Heavy Metal. There's been quite a few of the more traditional releases out this year, and they have varied widely in quality. Unfortunately, this is one of the not so good ones.

I tried really hard to like this album, I really did, because you can tell the band put a lot of themselves into it, and it contains a lot of heart, but the execution just wasn't up to scratch to be completely honest. Right from the start, it just didn't impress me. The first track, "Prelude" seemed to drag on for way too long, and I felt like the rest of the album followed the same pattern. I could see what direction the band were trying to go in, and I respect that, but this album doesn't do anything exciting or different. You can tell which bands they're trying to pay a homage to, and take inspiration from, but unfortunately they just fall short of this. But whilst I'm saying this, I do understand that they are a young band, and they may yet find their feet in subsequent releases.

That's not to say that there isn't any talent in this band, they can obviously all play their instruments, especially highlighted by the fact that this was recorded live with just the vocals and some other effects added in post-production. Indeed, the production itself isn't that bad, it doesn't sound fuzzy or low quality. However, you can see the talent is there, it just isn't put to its best use in my opinion. Like I mentioned before, it does seem to drag in parts, with riffs or hooks just going on for slightly too long. It appears to me that going into the production of this album, they had loads and loads of ideas, they just didn't quite know what to do with them all, and it ended slightly messy.

TUNGSTEN AXE are a young band having only formed in 2009, with a clear idea of what they want to do, which is sometimes lacking in other releases. But hopefully in the future, they'll develop a sense of themselves, and produce a decent album.