In 2009, the respectable historians at Rockadrome Records unearthed recordings by Scottish rockers Iron Claw that had been lost for roughly 35 years. The resulting self-titled compilation was met with a welcome response, and it fueled Iron Claw – who broke up in 1974, but played one or two reunion gigs in the meantime – to reform for new studio material. Recorded by bassist Alex Wilson, mixed and mastered by Stone Axe guitarist T. Dallas Reed and released by reliable purveyors Ripple Music, A Different Game is essentially Iron Claw’s first album, 40 years after the fact. It’s a fascinating proposition, and probably some rockers’ dream, that some day, they’ll finally get the appreciation they’ve long deserved, but that doesn’t necessarily mean doing a new record is a good idea. You’d be crazy to expect that because the three founding members of a band that rocked pretty hard four decades ago got back together and gave it a go with a new singer that they’d automatically pick up right where they left off. Life just doesn’t work that way. It’s like blaming someone for growing up. 40 years is a long time, and I’ve no doubt that Wilson, guitarist Jimmy Ronnie and drummer Ian McDougall – who are joined in Iron Claw by newcomer Gordon Brown – are much different people than they were when they recorded the songs that were later released as Iron Claw.

So foremost for anyone who heard the older Iron Claw material, A Different Game is going to live up to its title. Because it’s true: it’s a completely different game than it was when the band started out, and likewise, they’ve changed too. Most of the 13 tracks on the record are a kind of semi-heavy rock that occasionally drives home a killer blues riff but mostly sticks to a classic rock format. It might seem derogatory to call it “old-man rock,” but that’s what it is. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t rock, it just means it rocks like you might expect it to for being the product of guys whose sphere of influence and means of interpreting that influence are based on what it meant to be heavy decades ago. It’s like when Blue Cheer put out What Doesn’t Kill You. It wasn’t cool because it was so relevant or innovative in its style. It was cool because they were still doing it, because they still had it. That’s what’s working for Iron Claw here. If you’re thinking they’re going to plug back into their old amps and rip through material with the same intensity they did when they were 20 years old, well, I’m sorry, but you’re going to be disappointed both in listening to A Different Game and in life in general. There are a few heavier moments on the record – “See Them Fall” reminds of Iron Maiden, and opener “What Love Left” starts off swaggering and shuffling with Brown perhaps nodding at younger listeners with the line, “Sit down, son, there is much for you to learn” – and Ronnie has several choice solos throughout, but mostly it’s a straightforward traditional rock record that makes a lot of the moves you’d expect.

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So the headline’s a bit misleading. They’re going to jail more in the Johnny Cash sense than the Nick Oliveri sense. Either way, it’s a fascinating story. The classic Scottish heavy rockers will also release their soon-to-be-reviewed new album, A Different Game, through Ripple Music on Oct. 4. Obviously, more on that to come, but in the meantime, it seems playing to prisoners isn’t the extent of Iron Claw‘s charitable nature.

The PR wire has details:

Scottish proto-metal pioneers Iron Claw return with a long-awaited album of gritty, blues-based melodic heavy rock that is already garnering album-of-the-year accolades from the press. The 13-track album, A Different Game, is scheduled for UK release on Oct. 3 and worldwide release on Oct. 4, just in time for the band’s CD release event to be held at the Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct. 5.

“The release of this album marks the realization of a lifelong dream for each of us in the band,” says guitarist Jimmy Ronnie. “To be honest, it’s something that I had thought had passed me by. But it’s not just any album. It’s the record that Iron Claw always needed to make — hard, heavy, guitar-based rock with its roots in the blues. I’m delighted to say that we’ve succeeded in capturing the live spirit of the band on this record.”

The Barlinnie Prison gig is more than just a CD release event. The performance is sponsored by Governor Derek McGill to help show the prisoners that there are healthier alternatives to crime, such as playing and creating emotionally stimulating music.

“I am confident the prisoners in Barlinnie will love this gig,” McGill states, “This is not about entertainment for prisoners; it is to let them see alternative recreational pursuits that can lead them away from crime, introduce them to hobbies such as music that can give them a fresh start.”

The benevolent beings of Iron Claw have also announced that they will be headlining a charity event on Sep. 25 at Comlongon Rocks, which will assist Cash for Kids and Cancer Research. 22 bands and six DJs, and all for a mere £10! For more information, please follow the link: http://www.comlongonrocks.com

Congratulations to Ripple Music on their one-year anniversary. The label is home to the likes of Mighty High, Poobah and Stone Axe, and in celebration of their solar revolution (hopefully the first of many), they’ve made an exclusive digital compilation available for free download from their Bandcamp page. That’s cool enough, but the compilation also features new music from Iron Claw and Grifter, who’ll both have new albums out before the end of the year.

Here’s the news from the label, followed by the audio stream of the comp:

Now, as Ripple Music moves into its second year, founders John Rancik and Todd Severin want to celebrate the enthusiasm of their music lovers with some anniversary specials. As a thank you to their fans and supporters who’ve allowed Ripple to strike out and bring independent music to the world, Ripple is releasing it’s first ever free digital compilation album.

Featuring every band that has made the first year of Ripple Music such a success, Ripple‘s anniversary album kicks off with Stone Axe, before heading down the Ripple highway of Poobah, JPT Scare Band, Fen, and more. And as a special bonus, The anniversary album features the world’s first sneak peeks at two new Ripple releases; Grifter‘s self-titled debut album, and the eagerly anticipated A Different Game, from underground legends, Scotland’s Iron Claw. But the free compilation album may be available for only a limited time, so get over there quickly to get yours!

But wait, there’s more. Over at the Ripple Store, everything is still 15% off until July 4, and every waverider who places an order will get their name placed into a drawing for a very special, last-one-of-a-kind surprise test pressing!

Hey YouTube, thanks for taking the frame out of your embedding options this week. Not like that was a major reinforcement of my site’s color scheme or anything. Jerks.

We end this long Friday with “Pavement Artist” by Iron Claw, just because it rules. It’s not topical, they’re not coming to the city this week for a show, there’s nothing relevant about it other than it’s good, and I can’t even begin to tell you the satisfaction that posting it for that reason alone gives me. Long week? Shit.

But it’s over now, and as I stare both into a bowl of microwave risotto and down the barrel of a long weekend spent doing homework, all I have left to say is thanks for checking in the last few days. I know posts have been few and far between, but I’ve been working hard, and though I may have mentioned it once or twice, it means a lot to me that you come back more than once.

My best to you for a safe and enjoyable weekend.

If it hasn’t been said before in this space, I love Philadelphia. I’ll admit it doesn’t have the same sense of cosmopolitanism as New York — its history designates it a purely American city — but the people are so much nicer. It’s as though the city wasn’t constantly acting in a commercial for the city. It’s like someone turned down the asshole factor. If I could ever afford to live anywhere (which I don’t expect to be able to), I’d live there in a second. Even the hippest Philly record store I’ve been to yet, AKA Music, made NYC‘s Other Music look like a parody of itself.

Along with an extensive (if somewhat disheveled) used section from which I grabbed someone’s promo of the new Alice in Chains (meh), and a dollar bargain bin that yielded a copy of Pharaoh Overlord‘s II, they also had both prog and psychedelic sections. The prog section even had a krautrock subheading. Awesome. And for vinyl heads, there’s a whole other store’s worth of it in the back.

I nabbed a compilation of early Peruvian psychedelic music called The Roots of Chicha, which proved to be awesome, and the self-titled release from Iron Claw on Rockadrome‘s Vintage division. Yes, the name comes from King Crimson. The record is a collection of tracks recorded from 1970-1974 from the Scottish band, most of which I’m fairly certain were unreleased before, and on the plastic wrapping of the disc there were five magic words that assured the purchase: “For Fans of Black Sabbath.”

And that more or less sums up what Iron Claw had going on nearly 35-40 years ago. According to the label, they started out by playing Black Sabbath‘s Black Sabbath in its entirety during their sets along with their originals, formed in ’69 in Dumfries, were done in ’74, and until this exhumation, were buried by time and obscurity. The extensive liner notes detail their years together with notable shows and lineup changes and how different players affected the band, and the music is blown to hell, but a track like “Skullcrusher” still lives up to its name.

For serious devotees of the heavy ’70s new and old, Iron Claw‘s a can’t miss. They can’t all be Leaf Hound‘s Growers of Mushroom, but I think I prefer Iron Claw to the self-titled Jerusalem record Rockadrome put out a while back. You’ve got 16 tracks of classic hard riffing with the occasional prog freakout (“Pavement Artist”). Put that together with a city like Philly and mark it a win.