Release Date 10.07.2026
Format CD/LP
Genre Heavy/Speed Metal
Origin France
Iron Slaught formed in 2011 in Bigorra, South West France, and entered the underground through a blend of traditional heavy metal, speed metal, thrash, plus black and death metal accents. Their first full length, "Crusading Metal Mercenaries", appeared in 2015, followed by a split release in 2018. Eight years passed with no new material before "Metallic Torments", the second album. The listed lineup is Iron Jérémy on guitars and vocals, Nikrass on bass, with Stéphane Hellkine handling programmed drums. That gap matters. The music has the attitude of material worked over for years, not songs assembled to meet a release schedule.
Iron Slaught remains rooted in underground metal, using French and English lyrics, medieval imagery, violent tales, dark fantasy and devotion to metal without slipping into parody. The band’s history is brief on paper, though the distance between releases has given each chapter a separate character. "Metallic Torments" is broader than the debut, more dramatic in its longer forms, and more willing to place melodic heavy metal beside speed, thrash and extreme metal language.
"Metallic Torments" was completed in Bigorra during 2025 and arrives in eight tracks. The mix puts guitars at the front, leaves the bass audible, and gives the programmed drums a firm, aggressive attack. The percussion occasionally turns rigid when the arrangements become busy, and several melodic vocal passages wobble next to the much better rough shouts and rasps. The riff supply is deep, the lead guitar work has substance, and the longer compositions contain enough changes to justify their length. Iron Slaught shifts between rapid speed metal, traditional heavy metal melody, thrash acceleration, blackened phrasing and death metal accents with little dead space.
The album’s main lyrical frame is a collection of separate torments, obsession, vengeance, witchcraft, medieval battle, punishment and devotion to metal. Most lyrics are credited to Steel Converter, with two songs credited to Iron Jérémy. The writing treats these themes as violent stories, not decoration. Some choruses stay in the head after one spin, while the guitar lines reveal more on later plays. The production is raw enough to preserve the underground character, though it has enough definition for the layered leads and bass movement to register.
A few sections run longer than their ideas, and the programmed pulse can flatten the human swing. “Metallic Torments” is a high level second album with excellent guitar work, varied vocals, disciplined pacing and a convincing dark atmosphere. It falls short of elite status through uneven melodic singing and occasional mechanical rhythm, though its best passages rank among the better heavy and speed metal heard in 2026.
|8.3
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