The Ironfist have been around since 1998, and by now there is enough history behind the name to judge a new record against what came before rather than giving it the usual free pass because it is ‘underground’.
‘Akumalize’, released in January 2025, is a different beast from the earlier Ironfist material. Rip Alhuzzred and Psycho Fai are back together here, with Rip handling the vocals and bass while Psycho Fai handles the music and drums. The album was recorded and mixed in Singapore in December 2024.
There is plenty going on musically. Black Metal, Thrash, traditional Heavy Metal and old school Death Metal are all thrown into the mix, alongside the band’s long standing fascination with Japanese metal and imagery. That isn’t new territory for The Ironfist, but ‘Akumalize’ pushes the mixture further than some of their older material.
The problem is that more isn’t always better.
The older Ironfist material had a much more immediate character. There was less fuss around the riffs and more of a straight attack. Even ‘Tyrant’s Return’ from 2023, with its thirteen tracks and broader Blackened Heavy Metal approach, had more clearly defined songs. Tracks such as ‘The Tyrant’s Return’, ‘Iron Conquered Victory’ and ‘Where Blood Eagles Soar’ had enough individual character to stand apart from one another.
‘Akumalize’ doesn’t always manage that.
There are riffs here, but they don’t always stick. Some songs feel like they have been built around several ideas which never quite develop into a strong central hook. ‘The Lost Samurai’ has a more obvious traditional Heavy Metal streak, while ‘Necro-Shinbatsu’ is closer to the aggressive Black/Thrash Metal side where the band sounds most comfortable. ‘Aokigahara Morbid Palace’ has a darker atmosphere and its own identity, but other tracks blur together after a few listens.
The production doesn’t help.
The raw sound is understandable. Nobody expects The Ironfist to suddenly turn up with a spotless modern production job. But ‘Akumalize’ is sometimes so rough that the instruments lose definition. The guitars can become congested, the drums don’t always cut through properly and the vocals don’t consistently sit comfortably within the music.
That is not the same thing as saying the album should have been polished.
A dirty recording can work extremely well when every instrument still has its place. Here, the roughness occasionally gets in the way of the riffs. Considering Psycho Fai engineered and mixed the album himself, this feels more like a production decision that simply doesn’t work equally well across the whole record.
There is also the question of direction.
Rip Alhuzzred has been involved in a lot of different musical projects over the years. In a 2024 interview he listed The Ironfist alongside Alhuzzred, Dengoeng, Mecharium and several other projects and collaborations, while explaining that some are collaborative and others are more personal one-man affairs.
That level of activity is impressive, but it can also explain why the material coming out of his camp covers such a wide range of sounds and ideas. The Ironfist has to compete for attention with all these other outlets, and ‘Akumalize’ sometimes feels like another stop in that constant stream of ideas rather than a record that has been stripped down to the strongest material.
This is especially interesting because Rip himself has been quite open about the difference between the newer and older Ironfist periods. In a 2024 interview he described the more recent albums as the ‘Neo Ironfist’ era and admitted that, although he appreciated those records and the musicians involved, he felt they lacked the essence of the original Ironfist.
That is probably the most useful way to look at ‘Akumalize’.
It isn’t trying to recreate the early band exactly. The line-up has changed, the circumstances have changed and the music has expanded. Psycho Fai’s return is also significant because the two had worked together during the band’s earlier years and eventually put aside a long running personal feud to work together again.
So there is a genuine reason for ‘Akumalize’ sounding different.
I just don’t think all the changes have resulted in stronger songs.
The best parts are still very much The Ironfist. The Heavy Metal influence, the rough Black/Thrash Metal attack and the band’s completely individual approach stop the album from sounding like a generic modern extreme metal release. But compared with the older material, the songwriting is less immediate and the production makes the weaker sections more noticeable.
For someone already familiar with the band, ‘Akumalize’ is worth hearing as another chapter in a very long Singapore underground story. But if somebody asked me where to start with The Ironfist, I wouldn’t point them straight at this album.
I’d go back to the older material first.
‘Akumalize’ has enough character to make it recognisably The Ironfist, but it doesn’t have the same consistency or impact as their stronger earlier works. The ideas are there. The execution is simply more uneven this time around.
