Back in 1986 "Spell Of Iron" had been the starting point for the career of Finnish band TAROT, which to this day has received little to no attention outside of their home-country.

As mentioned, "Spell Of Iron" had been the first album and it shows the quartet deeply rooted in the traditional Metal of British descent, which shows through in most of the compositions. "Midwinter Nights", my very first contact with TAROT, starts out the whole thing with really traditional Melodic Metal, with very good vocals by Marco Hietala, which will be a trademark of the whole album.

OK, under close scrutiny and today's standards, songs like the straight "Love's Not Made For My Kind", tha gallopping "Spell Of Iron" (the highlight of the album) or the ballad "Things That Crawl At Night" sound a little dusty, but you should never forget that this album had been released 15 years ago!

For newcomers I would rather recommend the newer works, but who likes handcrafted, traditional Melodic Metal with good vocals won't do much wrong with "Spell Of Iron" either!