THRONE OF IRON is a band from Bloomington, Indiana. The band began in 2018 as founder Tucker Thomasson's solo project, which was inspired by the passing of Mark Shelton (MANILLA ROAD). When his one man demo started to grab attention, he gathered his 3 bandmates and they went "to the basement" to create a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in Metal form. Their first full length album "Adventure One" comes out on February 24th 2020. The genre they call themselves is Dungeon Crawling Heavy Metal, and I feel it's certainly fitting after listening to this album.

"A Call to Adventure" opens with the Dungeon Master giving the team their quest in a melodramatic fashion. The response to this call to action was a casual "fuck it" and the sound of someone opening a beer that cues the music in. The solo is awesome and the riffs definitely have the MANILLA ROAD vibe Tucker intended with the birth of this project. "Past the Doors of Death"  sets the scene for the start of the journey with a slower walking paced intro to show they were wandering into the unknown. There's this feeling of whimsy folded into their melodies, it's so fitting with the story being told. I had to really crank up the volume to hear the vocals/lyrics in this one; it sounds like he's singing in a cavern on this track. "Dark Shrine of Rituals" is a track about the villain of the campaign, the chuggy CIRITH UNGOL style riffs plus similar vocals emphasized it well. There's growls on this track too, which was a cool surprise. "The Power of Will" is probably the catchiest track on the album. The chorus alone is enough to have me craving to gather my old D&D group for a quest or two. The head-bob worthy riff style in this one reminds me of one of the most well known D&D inspired Heavy Metal bands GYGAX. "Lichspire" is the first single from this album.(The music video is hilarious and fantastic, check it out in the link below) This song has a really cool chorus with layered/echoed vocals. This is the big battle track and the music paints the battle scene with pure Heavy Metal style riffs and a high energy drum style.  "The Fourth Battle of the Ash Plains" starts with a dice roll blunder. The lyrics in this one created some great imagery of the battle they entered with low initiative, but proceeded to kick ass. The solo sections were great at creating this scene the vocals started with as well. "The Allure of Silver" has an excellent intro portion. I enjoyed the isolated whimsical guitars and how it builds up to the verse riffs. This is essentially the reward end portion of the campaign, so it has this high energy triumphant sound to it. "Wish" is the end track. It's fully instrumental played completely on synthesizers. It feels like an old fantasy role-playing game and completes this album just right.

Overall, "Adventure One" is a great Metal album. It has plenty of strong points; the riffs were catchy and cool and I liked the homage to epic metal greats like CIRITH UNGOL and RIOT. Plus, as a fellow D&D nerd, it was fun to hear their adventures of taking out a powerful enemy and dungeon crawling. I really love that this album is nerdy as hell and they're having fun and not taking themselves too seriously. My only qualm with this album was the times when the vocals would be drowned out by the music and were sometimes inaudible. I think it was a quirk of the old school "recorded in a basement" production style, so it wasn't too big of a deal after my first listen. Other than that bit, "Adventure One" an awesome debut album for THRONE OF IRON and I'm already looking forward to their next adventure when it comes around.