It's been nearly five years since I wrote my review of Throne of Iron's killer debut album Adventure One. Back then, we were forced to deal with a savage pandemic that ended up killing a million Americans; now we're living in a fascist regime that grows more grotesque and unbearable by the day, and we can only guess what the human cost will be. I hope the next time these dudes put out a record that we're living in happier times, but I'm not holding my breath.
Throne of Iron hasn't been super prolific in the intervening years, but they haven't been idle, either: they released a live album, a couple singles, a split with California thrash nerds Dungeon Crawl, and an EP. They even had a short-lived podcast that I enjoyed, but I imagine that life got in the way of that and everything else, as it tends to do. Point is that I've been waiting for this album for a while, and I'm stoked to tell y'all that it's everything you want from a sophomore effort.
Adventure Two picks up where Adventure One left off, literally and musically speaking. Their first album closed with a catchy instrumental synth piece called "Wish," which is forged into the straight-up metal opener "Denied" on this new album, using the same melody. It's pretty genius in its own way, and bodes well for the rest of the record. "Denied" is, fittingly, about a party of adventurers casting the legendarily fickle Wish spell and not getting what they hoped for from it.
I'm not going to go through the album song by song, but I will note that "The Oath" has a cool video that sums up the Throne of Iron aesthetic and showcases the classic metal sound that Adventure Two develops beyond what was heard on its predecessor. It also reveals that Hamm's is the band's beer of choice (which you might have figured out from their song "Gods of Liquid Gold" on the split with Dungeon Crawl), and that they're fond of cats. I told you it was a cool video.
The production is nice and clear. Guitars, drums, and vocals alike are mixed well, which is a bit of a relief because the drum sound on the original release of The Side Quest (the Dungeon Crawl split) was bafflingly bad. The bass gets kind of lost, though it's there, and I think this is because there isn't a full-time bassist in the band right now. Arzab of the Howling Abyss is credited as playing bass, but I suspect Arzab may be a stage name for one of the other members, or possibly a laptop. It doesn't really matter, fortunately.
Adventure Two is faster and more complex that Adventure One, demonstrating that the band has spent the last few years really fleshing out their sound and improving their songwriting, which was already solid to begin with. Gone are the first album's aural references to actually playing Dungeons & Dragons (the Dungeon Master and players' dialogue, the sound of rolling dice), but as much as I got a kick out of those, they're not necessary here. You get a slab of straight-up heavy metal that stands proudly on its own.
So there you have it, dudes. This is a fine progression for Throne of Iron, and an album anyone who likes traditional heavy metal will dig. It's got good riffs, tons of energy, and a bunch of songs about what totally has to be the band's D&D campaign. It's time to once more crack open a cold one, grab your dice, and—if you happened to buy the LP edition of Adventure Two—take the Dungeon Crawling Casserole the band gave you the recipe for out of the oven. Your buddies will be here soon, and there's fun to be had.
