Our Problem – Iron Monkey

After debuting with a self-titled EP in 1998, Iron Monkey provided its first full-length album with Our Problem. On this blistering, in-your-face CD, the British headbangers combine Black Sabbath-influenced guitar riffs with the type of distorted, screaming, tortured vocals that were quite common in both industrial noise and alternative metal in the 1990s. It's almost impossible to understand the lyrics that vocalist John Paul Morrow is singing, but then, it isn't crucial that you do. The very sound of his vocals creates and maintains a noisy, obnoxious type of ambiance, and that's exactly what Iron Monkey was going for. Iron Monkey was hardly the only band that was doing this type of thing in the 1990s; Cavity, for example, also thrived on a marriage of Sabbath-influenced riffs and distorted, industrial-like vocals. But Our Problem isn't as dense or as claustrophobic as Cavity's Supercollider, and it gives the listener a little more breathing room. That isn't to say that Our Problem doesn't take a sledgehammer approach--Monkey brings the sledgehammer down without apology, and in the process, it delivers a CD that fans of alternative metal will enjoy. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide