Ice War
Sacred Land

When Ice War takes to the Scared Land it is in a doomier fashion than before, it has this more apocalyptic look, and perhaps sound as well. I read in the press material that the Canadian one-man-band go more epic this time, before it was more speed metal and now we get something a bit akin to the Black Sabbath style of metal according to what I read. And it is probably quite true.

The sound this time is slower, more powerful and epic. The sound itself is still underground, cheapish production with a sound that feels kind of dated despite the fact that it was released this year. Vocals are pretty doomish and massing in style, like the Sabbath of old. Not a very inventive album stylewise, but probably more interesting than the previous one I reviewed in 2020. The seven tracks also give us a sensible playing time and that is always a positive aspect as too long albums tend to be duller even if they are better produced.

Better than last time I reviewed Ice War, but interesting is probably not the word I would use to describe that is on offer. It works, no doubt about that and fans of the doomier throwback kind of metal will probably find this album quite appealing. I am probably less impressed and think that it sounds a bit too underground for my taste, I like better productions.

I think this doomier direction could be the right choice for Jo and his Ice War, it sounds more interesting than the previous effort I wrote about. There is probably more potential in that musical direction as well, but I think that maybe he should slow down the release tempo and spend more time and money on each album instead. Fewer but better releases is what I preach, as this album feels kind of half-hearted just like the previous one did – I doubt you can ever make something good if you just rush through, it needs time and effort to really work and I am not sure that Ice War has given this album enough of that.

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