The Sleeping Eye

Although the Austin, Texas, quintet Iron Age recorded its second studio album in 2009, The Sleeping Eye sounds like an artifact from San Francisco's early-'80s thrash-metal scene. The opening title track is explosive speed metal in the spirit of Corrosion of Conformity, Cro-Mags, and early Metallica. Guitarists Matt Jackson and Wade Allison have certainly done their homework, blasting raw riffs against distorted fretboard shredding. In the following “Dispossessed,” they exude a chemistry and tension that recalls Dave Mustaine and Chris Poland on Megadeth’s 1985 debut album, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!. Iron Age is propelled by the outstanding rhythm section of drummer Reed Thomas and bassist Matt Jackson, whose versatility and congruency is best exemplified in “Burden of Empire”; they start with juggernaut rhythms that lumber alongside walls of guitar sludge. As the song shifts gears and gains speed, Thomas and Jackson fire off like a well-tuned V-twin engine. Frontman Jason Tarpey eschews retro trappings with a feral scream that has more in common with Bison B.C.’s James Farwell.