I’m not going to rehash the family tree of Minnesota’s Iron Thrones that includes Nehemiah, Veil of Maya, Dead to Fall and Everest — you can read my review of Iron Thrones’ excellent debut, Visions of Light, and get the back story.

What you do need to know is that (with the help of this website’s message board members), Iron Thrones won the No Label Needed competition and got themselves a whole lot of help with the recording, promotion and release of this follow-up album. Not that they needed it — I have a feeling, whether they had won the contest or not, The Wretched Sun would still havebeen a simply killer record.

As with the debut, The Wretched Sun’s starting point is Opeth with a dash of progressive post-rock (Callisto, Burst, The Ocean). The whole album is about hues and textures, light and dark, whether separated into languid acoustics and crescendos of metallic heft or melding into movements of emotive brilliance that combine both. The Wretched Sun is an elegant-yet-urgent, creative, artful record that highlights how good an unsigned band can be.

While the Opeth influence seems to be a little less evident, and vocally, the album is pure post-rock roars, screams and croons, the fact is that Iron Thrones appears tohavecarved their own niche within the subtext of those influences. They mix plenty of spacious melodies, melancholic moods and dynamic shifts into the tapestry of overt influences that often defies one single influence at a time.

With 6 songs and an ample 41 minutes, there’s rarely a wasted note like many of their contemporaries. The songs writhe and shudder with clever pacing, again intermingling gorgeous acoustics and atmospherics with layered bouts of epic, mountainous riffage and even some cantering metalcore/melodeath injections. Outstanding opener “Like a Moth to a Flame” is a window to the album’s soul, setting the mood for the rest of the record with a brilliant, shimmering climax. An Akerfeldt-ian trot and gloss arises for “Ever Flowing”, but the band manages not be as heavy-handed with it as Visions of Light, with it being the album’s shortest actual track, and they follow it up with the stunning opening blastbeat and angular pacing of “Against the Grain”, which also features a brilliant, stern segueafter a tranquil bridgearound 5 minutes in. Plus it’s the first track where Adam Clemans (ex-Veil of Maya) unleashes some very well done clean singing, coming in at the song’s epic ending.

The album’s center is the 11-minute masterpiece,  “I Once Had the Crown” which starts with delicate acoustics and transitions to the expected lurch and roar. However, the song’s stunning midsection and climax feature a rending chord progression, synths and a melody line you’d expect to hear on a Daylight Dies or Insomnium album. It’s truly magnificent and might be the most complete and emotional 11 minutes of music I’ve heard in 2010so far. The interlude “Forever Glowing” and blues/hardcore/Opeth collision of closer “And the Sky Came Falling Down” allow the listener to catch his/her breath. But it’s hard not to revisit “I Once Had the Crown” over and over again.

With The Wretched Sun‘s professional production and $6 download price tag, those lamenting the loss of Burst and Isis should look into this band now at their website. Seriously – pay attention, fans and LABELS.

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Quick story – there was a Minnesota metalcore band called Nehemiah, they released a killer album called The Asphyxiation Process and a swansong EP called Lenore. They split up. Members went on to help out Dead To Fall and also form a new band called Everest, who released a fine EP called Where the Earth Meets the Sky (which has been reviewed at this very site). ThenEverest sorta broke up and remaining Nehemiah/Everest guitarist Steve Henningsgard resurfaced with some new friends (including Metal Review forum member Ragnarok aka vocalist Adam Clemens), a new moniker and a fucking killer album that’s free to download at the band’s site.

The end result? Arguably the best free, self released record I’ve heard that’s right up there with the like The Living Fields and The Pax Cecilia for free self released brilliance crying for a record deal. Now, folks hoping for Nehemiahreincarnation or even something sounding like Everest will be sorely disappointed as Iron Thrones treads a different path; a brilliant path that sounds like Opeth crossed with Cult of Luna or any of the other top notch shoegazer/post rock bands (Buried Inside, Burst, Isis, etc). Yeah – this is that good.

Swelling, epic riffs and builds intermingle with delicate acoustic hues and a killer sense of mood and deft songwriting make this on par with any of the genre’s better efforts, but without completely sounding like an Isis rip off, as the Opeth influence keeps things grounded and more varied, though some may simply put it down as pure Opeth mimicry. Either way, this is frigging good (did I mention free?) stuff with the opening chords of epic opener “Swell to the Surface” promising something special and Visions of Light delivers.

With a sturdy professional production, Iron Thrones isn’t content to simply huff and lurch by in a typical drawn out 70 minute plus post rock fugue, but instead delivers to the point time changes and atmosphere galore, glossed with truly epic throes that vary from expected ebbs and flows to anOpethian canter and the light/dark hues that come with such an influence. Simply listen to “The Dark Design” for a simple microcosm of the band’s sound and then tell me the riff at 4:29 isn’t about perfect. “Heart of the Light” is pure Opeth with its layered gallop and evocative solo work while “Still Waters” displays a somber energy; (early) Opeth sounding pace – a mix that’s hard to perfect and a mid song acoustic section that’s to die for.

One could argue the Opeth influence is a bit heavy handed (i.e. “The Final Farewell” and its simply killer climax), but to the band’s credit, there are no clean vocals or purely self indulgent tracks (though “Wading” is a rather needless instrumental interlude), just some tasteful acoustics here and there, a piano intro to the otherwise more urgent “Illumination” and its swelling, almost Middle Eastern peak and frankly when it’s done this well and with some post rock builds and ebbs thrown in, there’s a little character and slightly more than a mere Akerfeldt worship.

Rangy penultimate 11 minute track “Cover of Smoke” is a shift to more lurching, layered, shimmering post rock restraint and mood with yet another killer acoustic break and a brilliant emotional final few minutes. Closer “Shadows Revealed” seems a bit of a let down after the epic brilliance of the previous track, as it comes across more like a Misery Signalsmetalcore song but its still quite well done, showing the bands depth and ability to cross genres seamlessly and ending a superb (free) album on a worthy note.

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