Rule one of punk rock club is probably written down somewhere as “you must like Iron Chic”. Not just because they’re totally playing at Fest next year (probably), but also because they just happen to be one of the best punk bands on the planet right now.
It gets little bit irksome wading through hyped up, samey punk bands to find a gem, but Iron Chic really have been “best-of-genre” material for a while now, and ‘The Constant One’ is no different in standard and consistency to their must-lauded ‘Not Like This’. They’re a real diamond in the gruff punk rough of late, and have more than earned every bit of attention they’ve been getting in recent years with tracks of similar quality to ‘Sounds Like A Pretty Brutal Murder’ and ‘Prototypes’.
They’ve got a knack at balancing fairly gritty vocals against clever melodies in verses and life affirming chorus shoutalongs, and the fact that you just KNOW they can back it all up live just enforces how exciting a new record from them is.
With an aptronymic album ‘The Constant One’, Iron Chic should go a long way to concreting their already solid reputation, and the added bonus of well structured layering in ‘A Serious House On Serious Earth’ shows that the band have plenty more to offer in terms of growth in their own sound. An exciting, exhilarating listen, and one that you’ll find yourself listening to on repeat with very little effort at all.
TOM AYLOTT