Ironrat – Beneath It All

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · April 9, 2025

Ironrat are a rocking stoner doom and sludge metal band from Bradford, UK. They have three full length albums out including 2014’s Monument, 2023’s Weed Machine, and their latest 2025’s Beneath It All. The current lineup consists of Martin Wiseman on guitar and vocals, Wayne Hustler on guitar, Stuart Hillman on bass, and Gordon WIlkinson on drums. Beneath It All was released on February 28th 2025 on Argonauta Records. It contains six tracks and is thirty nine minutes long.

“Liar” starts the album off with a heavy rocking rhythm of stoner metal. The mid pace riffing and thunderous drumming carries a powerful groove that is met with Wiseman’s good vocal delivery. The sound definitely has a metallic feel to it and flows along nicely throughout. Being the shortest track on the record around four and a half minutes, the song is a great opener that sets the mood for the rest of the album. The rest of the songs on Beneath It All are in between six and nine minutes long. “Tip Of My Tongue” strikes next and begins with the guitar riff that comes alive once the rest of the band joins in. It is heavy driving riff that then crushes into a nice doom rhythm for the chorus parts. Midway through the track, the song pauses for some integrated clean guitars that have a bluesy tone about them. It then flares back up into the doomier chorus. The song then changes into some killer accents and erupts into a heavy but slower crushing sludge riff.

The third track entitled “Lost” has a thrashy chugging riff to the start and punishes with some beat down riffing with great vocals that work perfectly for the rhythm. Ironrat explores some nice dynamics just before three minutes into the song when the music pauses except for some muted guitar picking, with the vocals laying down the melody. The sound then explodes back with a colossal doom riff accentuated with some harmonic leads and more heavy metal grooves. The longer tracks work great for the band to express riff transitions that ultimately lead to a brutal performance of sludgy doom metal. “Burn” enters next with a harmonic guitar part enticed with a marching snare build up. The riff flows through a wall of prodding doom metal and delivers the guitar harmonies as sprinkles of sonic tones. Wiseman’s voice blends in elegantly with the brooding riffs. The song has a lot of charming melodies of riff rocking rampage and heavy metal mayhem. The last riff is especially punishing on “Burn” and breaks for a quick bass guitar fill that crushes back into the monster riffing, as the vocals are singing “there’s nothing left to burn!”, to close out the song.

“Wasted” pummels with a hardcore rage at the start that switches into a marvelous doom riff. The song has a great break with heavy accents that constructs a massive and grooving rhythm. The track surges from one heavy riff to the next without any hesitation. Ironrat proceeds with no delay and transposes a grandiose sound in its tracks. The halfway point of the song indulges in some excellent leads before dropping down into a more mellow passage. The bass break signals some elaborate psychedelic sounds before the band releases more melodic leads and rhythms. The transition is flawless and the band roars back into the heavy destruction thereafter. The sixth and final track on Beneath It All is called “Obscene”. The almost seven minute closer is a battering ram of pulverizing riffs and hammering drums in the first 1:45. The music then abruptly stops and classical sounding guitars intertwine into the tune as they crank back into a slower pile driving rhythm. The guitar harmonics are mitigated nicely with the riff as they lay down some soulful guitar leads. Ironrat are very accomplished and skillful musicians and these six tracks have a lot of great sonically effective musical elements within each of them. After several full listens, I was totally impressed and sold on what this music was set out to achieve. Beneath It All is an exhilarating ride into heavy riffing and rocking metal melodies.