The pride of Danish power metal, Iron Fire, was the band which got the honour of closing down Dark Mental Festival 2012, as the headliner of the final day.

Considering the bands grass-root popularity, and the many friends the members of the band have in the Danish metal community, it wasn’t all too surprising to see that Iron Fire had the largest crowd off all the bands who visited the festival, and things were set for a blast of a closing party.
Starting out with Taken off of their latest album, the 2012 release Voyage Of The Damned, they set the tone for a show with a lot of their newer material, where several of the songs were taken (no pun intended) from the aforementioned album. This left little space for old classics, but at least the middle of the set saw the sing-along epic hit from their eponymously named debut album, Thunderstorm, a song which definitely went down well with the festival crowd who was hungering for something familiar to put their teeth into after three days of upcoming, mostly unsigned and unreleased talent.
Yes, things were shaping up pretty well as the party progressed, but sadly it would not stay this way...

Although Iron Fire has never been a favourite of mine, they have for the most of the time managed to create entertaining live-shows which goes down well with a beer or two, but this night saw several issues which prevented this from happening.
First of all, the band seemed really un-tight and unrehearsed, something which might have something to do with vocalist Martin Steene’s move to Norway, and secondly, Steene apparently needed a ring binder with the lyrics to be able to remember his own songs (on top of this all the backing vocals were taped!). Both of these points are inexcusable when it comes to any band with a bit of experience, something which I would say Iron Fire have proved to have in the past; the band is after all 12 years old!
Another problem was that there was no energy in the performance, or any signs of real joy of playing for that matter – something which should have been the highly anticipated one-off special appearance from the band turned into a concert which the members seemed only too keen to just get over with so they could return to hanging out in the bar and shoot the shit with their friends. It wasn’t all bad, but things fell more and more apart the further into the set we progressed.

I was happy to have stayed on for Iron Fire, if only for the chance to once again scream Thunderstorm in a drunken state at the top of my lungs, but I can’t blame people for leaving before the gig was done. Yes, the crowd was constantly thinning, as people found more enjoyment in sitting outside in the cool night air, sucking down a last pint or two before the festival would be over.
This was certainly not the best Iron Fire can deliver, it was hardly a good show by this bands standards, and it was just as certainly not the best show of the festival. I think cosy, yet boring, is the best overall description I can give it, and hope for an improvement for the future...

Setlist:

Taken
Slaughter Of Souls
Fate Of Fire
Bridges Will Burn
To The Grave
Thunderstorm
Leviathan
Ten Years In Space
Wings Of Rage
Kill For Metal
Voyage Of The Damned
March Of The Immortals