The Passage

Much had changed in the Iron Man camp during the short year separating their sophomore album, 1994's The Passage, from its rightfully acclaimed predecessor, Black Knight. On the personnel front, drummer Ron Kalimon had been replaced by Gary Isom (later of Unorthodox, Spirit Caravan, and Pentagram) and first album vocalist Rob Levey deposed (on the Hellhound label's insistence!) for the technically more accomplished Dan Michalak, but the latter's histrionic vibrato (think a junior Messiah Marcolin) could come off a little comically forced at times, ironically making him an acquired taste, just like his precursor. At least on the musical front, however, the band's guitarist and creative mastermind Alfred Morris III could still be counted upon to guide Iron Man (rounded out by returning bass player Larry Brown) down the (mostly) straight and narrow doom path without commercial dilution or unnecessary distractions. Resulting highlights included the LP's emphatic opener "The Fury" (an homage to Black Sabbath's "Neon Knights" in more ways than one), the short, sweet, and savage "Iron Warrior," and the memorable instrumental "Tony Stark" (which of course borrows the alias for that iron-plated Marvel Comics superhero; get it?). Meanwhile, the discreet synthesizers fleshing out "Waiting for Tomorrow"'s intro showed that Iron Man weren't entirely averse to modernization, either, but they sure as hell weren't leaping to embrace it. Also, The Passage put a little more emphasis on slower doom numbers — see "Unjust Reform," "Harvest of Earth," and the rather toothless "Time of Indecision" — which, while more authentically traditional in nature, didn't pack nearly as much of a punch as the band's speedier efforts. Nevertheless, The Passage helped establish Iron Man's mighty reputation far and wide to doom-loving hordes across the globe, and it was indeed a shame that the group would wait half-a-decade before capitalizing on this with a third album, 1999's Generation Void.