The Ferrymen - Iron Will
(Frontiers Music SRL - 2024)
(Genre: Melodic Metal)
Ronnie Romero, Mike Terrana and Magnus Karlsson are The Ferrymen. ‘Iron Will’ is their fourth voyage into melodic metal waters. They are an experienced trio to take you on this musical journey spanning the eleven tracks the album offers.
The album begins in strong fashion as there is a grandiose feel to the power in the arrangements on offer. Tracks like opener ‘Choke Hold’, ‘Mother Unholy’, ‘Iron Will’ and ‘Above it all’ all impress.
Ronnie Romero delivers these tracks as if consumed by the spirit of a certain Ronnie James Dio. Mike Terrana’s drumming is powerful and captures the attention across these songs. Magnus Karlsson offers fluid fret work, rapid riffs and skilful solos within these opening four tracks too.
From this point on the album seems to slip into a rather repetitive trend. There are still moments to enjoy and all the song are quite decent, they just fail to really stand out. The songs mostly have a similar pacing and feel to them, becoming a little formulaic.
The exceptions to this are the power ballad ‘Dream and Destiny’ and the album closer, ‘You’re the Joker’. The latter recaptures the albums early form with Terrana and Karlsson both showing what they can do.
‘Iron Will’ begins in a strong way but loses its shine as it progresses. It is a decent album overall and will appeal to fans of Dio and the like. It never disappoints, it just suffers from being too one dimensional.
6/10
By Carl Mace