EP Review – Dark Days Ahead by Iron Reagan (Pop Wig Records)

American crossover thrash supergroup, Iron Reagan, have released a new EP called Dark Days Ahead. Dark Days Ahead was released on the 12th of October via Pop Wig Records.

Iron Reagan hail from Richmond, Virginia and formed in 2012. The band consists of current and ex members of some pretty big bands in their genres. On vocals it is Tony Foresta (Municipal Waste), on guitars it’s Phil “Landphil” Hall (Municipal Waste/Cannabis Corpse). Also on guitars is Mark Bronzino (ex A.N.S.) and on the bass it’s Rob Skotis (Hellbear). Finally, on drums it’s Ryan Parrish (ex Darkest Hour).

Since their formation, Iron Reagan have released 3 albums, 2 EPs and a 2 split EPs with the most recent coming earlier this year with a split between Iron Reagan and Gatecreeper.

I find Iron Reagan to be a little bit of an odd project purely because it seems so similar to the music of the main members already, namely Municipal Waste. Short, sharp blasts of venomous thrash is the order of the day with Municipal Waste and it is pretty much exactly what you get with Iron Reagan. I guess the biggest difference might be the darker lyrical content. Where Municipal Waste can often deal with things in a comedic fashion, Iron Reagan are more forthright.

Dark Days Ahead has 5 tracks on it and weighs in at an impressively short 8 minutes in total length. It starts off with Authority. A 1 minute and 20 seconds blast of heavy thrash. Crashing drums and a dark tone to the guitars start the song off before the vocals come in, high in pitch but spat out aggressively and at pace. Gang vocals come in for the chorus of sorts as the guitars and drums seem to keep getting faster and faster before it suddenly ends.

Dark Days Ahead is just under 90 seconds long and has a bit more of a groove to it. Impressive drum blasts stand out in the beginning with quick picked riffs. There is a quality section right at the start where the guitars fade and leave the drums to create a few seconds of rolling thunder before the vocals jump back into the mix. There is a bit more of a singing style to this one and some catchy “whoahs” from the backing. Overall there is a decent amount of groove here though it gets a little silly at the ends with some recording laughing. Musically, pretty cool but it seems to slip as it comes to a close.

The longest song on the EP is called Patronizer. I like this one a lot. There is a darker tone overall and the guitars are more ta the forefront in the opening section. A strong riff and catchy drum beat gives the feel of more of a NWOBHM start. The vocals mix up between sung and aggressively shouted. As the song progresses the pace picks up a lot. None more so than the last 30 seconds where it sounds like the band are about to explode through the frenetic energy on show. The Devastation, followed by Watch You Die close the EP. The former being another superfast, thrashy song with a catchy groove section near the end. The latter, having some excellent squealing guitars in the intro before descending into another quick and heavy thrash piece with shouted vocals and explosive drums.

For an EP, Dark Days Ahead has its merits. There are 4 decent and 1 really good songs on here. The drumming is impressive throughout and there are some very neat riffing sections on here. In amongst all the angst, you also get a lot of darker toned groove which I really like. Having said that, one thing Dark Days Ahead is not is unique in any way. There is nothing on here to make you sit up and take notice. I have heard it all before. Often from the bands that form this side project actually. Good but uninspiring. A little bit of filler to pack out the crossover thrash genre.

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You can grab Dark Days Ahead now on all the usual streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. You can grab some other music from Iron Reagan’s Bandcamp page here though Dark Days Ahead isn’t listed there yet. Find out more about Iron Reagan at their Bandcamp page, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.