Lords of Quarmall – Iron Exile (2021) / 82%

Lord of Washington

Reuben Storey has been busy since the death of both Christian Mistress and Quayde LaHue. The multi-instrumentalist released some demos as Yronoxit and Horrible last year but that Lords of Quarmall EP is his first contribution to 2021 but surely not his last. The band name is straight up out of classic sword & sorcery (Fritz Leiber, to be more precise) and the subject of that review.

I know y’all probably haven’t heard Yronoxit (do so now) but I’ll compare the two a little. They’re both weird heavy metal but they’re coming from two different places. Yronoxit was a spooky, Mercyful Fate-ish project with influences from experimental heavy metal (see Krypt Axeripper) and an unusual vocal delivery. On the other hand, Lords of Quarmall is heavier, faster and incorporates a fair load of Slough Feg bits. If you’ve been living under a rock, The Lord Weird Slough Feg are the best American heavy metal band of the past 25 years. Iron Exile reminds me of some of the strongest Feg material from Down Among the Deadmen to Hardworlder. The album introduction “Inopia Scriptorum” also gave me a lot of old Rush vibes and those are always welcomed.

Four of the six tracks are pretty short (under two minutes) and most of them are instrumentals. They surround the two more substantial numbers, the mid paced “The Prophet’s Mirror” and the fast epic closer “Megapolisomancy” (been trying to pronounce that title all day) and I mean, it’s a good fit.

The main strength of the project is the riffs, they’re super good, all of them. The drums are intense, especially in that unpronounceable aforementioned track, they're bordering the death/thrash territories on that song. There's blastbeats while there's some subtle synths in the background, it gives us some sort of cosmic sword & sorcery big dick energy mood. Vocals wise, Reuben sounds like an unhinged Lemmy. A big barbarian with a massive sword influence, ya know.

Surely that's not the most original stuff released in 2021 but it never aimed to be. I do feel there's enough idiosyncratic elements here though. It's more accessible than Yronoxit and doesn't sound like it was made in a vacuum where the idea of what heavy metal sounds like is a distant souvenir. It's raw, intriguing, arcane traditional metal with galloping riffs and a powerful energy.

Available here - The old school way