Album Review: Iron Jinn, Zeitgeist on the Run
A sense of grim revelry pervades Iron Jinn‘s second full-length, Zeitgeist on the Run, the title referencing Wings and perhaps the everything-is-fleeting, high-speed/low-attention-span aspects of our times. The Netherlands-based outfit released their self-titled debut (review here) in 2023 and followed it with 2024’s Live at Roadburn (review here), the latter of which found the then-four-piece bringing in keyboardist Jarno van Es as a fifth onstage. And it worked to such a degree that not only is Es now a full-time member of the group alongside guitarist/vocalists Wout Kemkens and Oeds Beydals, bassist Gerben Bielderman and drummer Bob Hogenelst — all returning from the first LP — but is an essential part of the sound across the Pieter Kloos-recorded seven songs and 66 minutes of the new album.
Particularly in the longer-form material like the opener “Sayonara” (9:33) or side B and D closers “Residuum Strut” (11:30) and the premiered here “The Futurist” (17:49) — not that the eight-minute “The Glass Wall” or nine-minute “Soma” don’t also count as longform, I’m just dropping pertinent examples, not trying to list songs; most of them are long — the dynamic in Iron Jinn has audibly shifted as the keys have stepped in to fill out the sound, provide cinematic atmosphere and melodic depth, freeing the guitars to explore in new ways a darkly progressive sound. I’m not sure Iron Jinn knew the band they were going to be when they set out, but the band they’re becoming offers something different and more daring than almost the entirety of the heavy underground can.
“Sayonara” at the outset teases Opethian reaches in its intro, but Iron Jinn‘s prog operates on its own wavelength and it’s as much about atmosphere, but the keys are right in there with the guitars as the first elements the listener hears, and as the riff goes dark in the verse, the keys stay prominent, horror-cinematic, and well balanced in the mix alongside Kemkens‘ vocals, which are almost immediately more commanding than they were three years ago, and dynamic in themselves as they move into the chorus, backed (I’m pretty sure that’s backing vocals and not layering, but, you know…) by Beydals, and as they slither toward the midsection, the deep-set, obscure-sounding shaker or whatever it is is a preface to similar noises that will permeate, often from the guitar, in other tracks.
It’s weird, it can be off-putting in its almost-goth twist, but it’s also a richly immersive sound, and if you can follow where the band lead, it’s a journey well worth the taking. The second half of the leadoff is mostly instrumental, but there’s a moment where everything drops out and the vocals return, standalone at first, but then joined first by the keys and then everything else. Punches of bass come through the crescendo and, suitably, the keyboard is the last to go. Shades of Motorpsycho‘s go-where-it-needs-to prog are relevant to the discussion, and of course anything dark and Dutch of this generation requires a mention of The Devil’s Blood, in which Beydals played in the long-long-ago, but Zeitgeist on the Run is most of all a declaration of purpose on Iron Jinn‘s own part, and as the early-1960s-style shimmer of guitar begins “The Glass Wall,” it’s clear their principle concern is following their own sonic framework.
Crucially, there is little sense of ritual here, aesthetically speaking. I don’t doubt that Iron Jinn have their habits and ways of doing things, but at no point does Zeitgeist on the Run sound cultish for its own sake, and it probably could if it wanted to. Instead, “The Glass Wall” reinforces the reality that “Sayonara” began to build, with an odd, pulled-sounding guitar solo extending into the multi-voice chorus in its later reaches, again, nigh on goth as it moves to end with toy piano-esque sounds, but in its own space.
Hogenelst begins the subsequent, shorter “Landing on a Dream” (5:42) with a fill to signal the change in tempo and mood, and indeed the flip to side B brings a change, not necessarily more direct, but with Kemkens as a kind of dark ringmaster — Nick Cave fronting a version of Fields of the Nephilim that grew up listening to King Crimson — even their ‘rocker’ is presented with a twist, from the little fuzzy bits of noodling that come through to the compressed swirl of the finish leading into “Residuum Strut” at the end of the first LP, the keys leading the way in with string sounds as if to highlight the point.
By then, momentum — oddly — is on Iron Jinn‘s side, and the title’s reference to movement is appropriate, though it’s more of a softshoe than a strut, honestly. Fleet-footed enough that the lyrics mention dancing. Near frenetic, but controlled, purposefully weird in the quiet stretch, and emerging therefrom at a fairly urgent twist, with a false ending 10 minutes in and more shenanigans behind that. As regards tricks up sleeves, the supply is ample.
Standing firm on new ground, “Soma” is a bit of a bright spot in terms of mood, with a sense of chase to its procession that serves double as preface for “The Futurist” still to come, and a feeling of movement continuing on from “Residuum Strut” that’s under way before the song’s full arrangement is even revealed, as well as a lighter float corresponding to its concluding cymbal wash. The penultimate “Can I Watch?” is the shortest inclusion on Zeitgeist on the Run at 4:41, and the most direct vocal showcase as well, with ambience behind verses not exactly shapeless but amorphous in its flow even as time is kept.
The band has cited minimalism among its points of inspiration for these songs, and though most of the record is a good way off from that mark in terms of intention, the quiet spaces are haunted in a way that shows the attention given to even the most subdued of processions, not just the all-in, let’s-bend-light heavyprog rush. Mood and drone hold sway in “Can I Watch?” as they have throughout, particularly in the final minute as the vocals recede and let the tone drift to the finish, bringing “The Futurist” about after a final platter-flip; the closer is a slow burn worldbuilder, restless rhythmically but dramatic and willing to take the time it needs (obviously) to go where it’s trying to go.
Perhaps inevitably, it summarizes a lot of what Zeitgeist on the Run accomplishes from front to back, but part of that is to continue pushing the limits of the band, of their compositional methodology and the according stylistic nuance as their dynamic has undertaken the shifts here conveyed. All of that is to say, by the end of Zeitgeist on the Run, Iron Jinn may have their roots in classic prog, dark heavy psychedelia and atmospheric exploration, but the band they most sound like is themselves.
For anyone who’s followed them to this point or picks up from here, that’s invariably good news. Zeitgeist on the Run is no small undertaking either in runtime or the substance of its material, but it is an achievement on a level of its own making, not the least for the plotted-out sensibiities behind its longer excursions and the ways in which those are answered by the shorter songs. Whether you put it on to trace every bizarre turn or to glaze over and let it enfold you, it stands up and feels like a herald for continued and committed growth on the part of the band. And however much that might be the case, whatever the future brings, it is made to be and should be heard now. A distinct voice in the elusive and intangible zeitgeist it portrays.
[Band photo by Louise te Poele.]
Looking forward to this release. Also looking forward to future good news regarding The Patient Mrs. treatable diagnosis. Good luck and we will be thinking about your family.
First consult with the surgeon is tomorrow. Ultrasound today showed it hasn’t spread beyond what’s already been identified, which we took of course as good news. We’ll know more Friday. Appreciate the thoughts.