Band:	Andras
Album:	Iron Way
Style:	Pagan black metal
Release date:	June 2008

01. Intro
02. Miasma Track
03. Spellbreaker
04. Across Those Highlands
05. Return To Black Hill
06. Infested
07. Dunkelwald
08. Pagan Path
09. Kreuzweg
10. Outro

After another couple of line-up changes, Germany's Andras are ready to release their new full-length album. This time it's called "Iron Way" and features some more Pagan/Heathen themed Black Metal. The term "Pagan Metal" is often disputed, but I think a tag of "Pagan Black Metal" would fit Andras here. The music is an impure form of Black Metal and the cleaner vocals and lyrical themes present would fall under the Pagan banner.

The first thing you notice about this album though is the magnificent cover artwork. The image of a cloaked man wandering through the snowy forest with a cloudy mountain range in the background shows off some great illustration. On to the music though; after an uplifting intro the booming clean vocals, fairly fast chilly riffing and double-kick drumming set the scene for the album. The cleaner vocals are also accompanied by some harsh vocals which are of the growl/rasp hybrid variety. Both vocal styles complement each other well but the clean vocals just don't sit quite perfectly with me. I generally quite like the style Andras are using, but somehow the clean vocals here, while rather good, are perhaps a bit too nasally. I found the drumming pretty one-track too. It's generally either constant bass blasting or that fast snare rhythm (which at least isn't abused to the extent of which Marduk used to) with a few quick high to low range passes thrown in. The drumming isn't sloppy or untalented, just rather repetitive and therefore can be boring at times. On the plus side, the keyboards used as a kind of background are excellent. The atmospheres created are very fitting to the Pagan vibe and really give the music a nice lift. An epic feel around the music is often felt because of them.

So while Iron Way does have its flaws, it isn't all bad and I still get some enjoyment out of listening to the album over again. With the solid blackened guitar-work and the awesome foundation created by Adversarius' keyboards, there's pleasure to be had here.