Firebrand Super Rock: Firebrand Super Rock

Secrets of the steel sporran.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

It seems an incredibly long time since Firebrand Super Rock released their debut EP, earning themselves a spot on most commentators’ ones-to-watch list.

The wait has been worth it, however, because the Edinburgh quartet’s first album adds textural depth and bigger hooks to their blazing traditional metal attack.

Vocalist Laura Donnelly remains the most powerful weapon in the band’s arsenal, her Dio-esque bellow ensuring that the windswept bombast of River Of The Dead and Iron Void are delivered with plenty of fiery eyed melodrama.

Meanwhile, dark-hued anthems like the distinctly Manilla Road-esque Hell’s Mouth and the stirring rumble of Born To Die bury themselves in the skull like well-aimed hatchets hurled across a bloody battlefield. Don’t bother to duck.

Dom Lawson
Writer

Dom Lawson began his inauspicious career as a music journalist in 1999. He wrote for Kerrang! for seven years, before moving to Metal Hammer and Prog Magazine in 2007. His primary interests are heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee, snooker and despair. He is politically homeless and has an excellent beard.