IRONBITE is a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band from Germany who have held long enough in such a demanding scene to release their debut album, Blood and Thunder. Since the usual first approach of a melomaniac to a new work of music creativity, the album cover, the feeling created by this band is the one that will fulfill this sentiment of peeking into a new universe where the unknown will lead us into the possibility of acquiring a new band or song into our favorites. A process that certifies our very identity, a mechanism entwined by the countless generations that have existed prior to us, a concept quite achieved when listening to this band's debut after confirming that the music is as kick ass as the album cover.

A great ensemble of timing, harmony and melody, all together, these accomplished young rockers, manage to provide those fortunate enough to come across their work with an experience worthy of the time, with an album that I must say I played continuously for a week without ever feeling weariness or the need to change the music. A life giving energetic work of prime songwriting with a single flaw, the production could have enhanced the sound of the instruments and the voice a lot more if it had been given a little more thoroughness. Records like this do nothing but reassure the human right to superior music, driven straight through the heart like an arrow of might piercing through the senseless years of mental programming that we have all been subjected to since we first opened our eyes into the light of the sun or to be more certain with the times that we live in the OR.

The tonal dissonance in the chord progression of "Unleashed" develops to form an outstanding example of what metal music stands for in Europe, a way of life not only in the mainland but in Britain, the Scandinavian countries and each time more and more Mediterranean and even ex-soviet nations that make the message of metal a force to be reckoned with in more and more countries every day. There is no need to be brutal in this case to deliver an album that a warrior would listen to if headphones had existed during the time of the world's greatest wars of antiquity.