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Ira

The Body and the Soil

(Go Kart; US: 13 Jun 2005; UK: Available as import)

From Germany comes Ira, a group that wants to rock out with hard heavy metals riffs while at the same time lure you in with sweet melodies. However, the lead off “Soil” is stuck in some sonic mud, plodding and prodding for at times an agonizing nine minutes. Less is sometimes more but you’d be hard pressed to tell these guys. After a tedious “Drone”, Ira come back with another epic ditty called “You’re Living All Over Me”, which opens up very tenderly and continues down this path for the first third. Then the guitars chime in for a better than expected result. Unfortunately, when you start hitting 15 minutes for one song, it better be damn good. “Disappear” is that long but is not good, just another deliberate, theatrical attempt at thick, beefy hard rock in the vein of Queensryche. The only redeeming portions come during the focused and strong “Long Live The Parts I” and “Love Live The Parts II”. It’s a record that is daring but at times rather dull.

Rating:

Originally from Cape Breton, MacNeil is currently writing for the Toronto Sun as well as other publications, including All Music Guide, Billboard.com, NME.com, Country Standard Time, Skope Magazine, Chart Magazine, Glide, Ft. Myers Magazine and Celtic Heritage. A graduate of the University of King's College, MacNeil currently resides in Toronto. He has interviewed hundreds of acts ranging from Metallica and AC/DC to Daniel Lanois and Smokey Robinson. MacNeil (modestly referred to as King J to friends), a diehard Philadelphia Flyers fan, has seen the Rolling Stones in a club setting, thereby knowing he will rest in peace at some point down the road. Oh, and he writes for PopMatters.com.


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