When Iron Jinn unleashed their self-titled debut in 2023 on Stickman Records, it felt like a massive cannon blast waiting to happen. I compared the album to an alternate soundtrack for Kathleen Byron’s menacing character of Sister Ruth in Powell and Pressburger’s 1947 classic Black Narcissus. It had that same take-no-prisoners attitude that made the quartet such an explosive force.
Now, in 2026, the band returns with even more terrifying results, blending dooming, progressive, and ominous textures on their second album, Zeitgeist on the Run. Moving from Stickman to Suburban Records, Zeitgeist is fresh, mesmerizing, and an off-the-wall roller-coaster ride, a thrilling and dangerous voyage that puts the Magic Kingdom to shame.
The album cover takes a surreal, avant-garde approach, reminiscent of the stories Alejandro Jodorowsky created for Métal Hurlant. Its sugar-cube-like atmosphere, with people standing atop a gigantic red flower in the distance, leaves you wondering what they will do next.
From the moment ‘Sayonara’ erupts with its galloping combination of drums, guitars, mellotrons, and film-noir-like keyboards, you feel as if you have entered a hallway of mirrors in the heart of Gotham City. Its 1940s Art Deco and Goyaesque atmosphere, feels like something the Joker would create to trap the Dark Knight inside a dangerous maze. At times, it comes across like an alternate soundtrack to the Amazon Prime animated series, Batman: Caped Crusader, with the Dark Knight continuing his investigation from the shadows and exposing the corruption lurking behind the GCPD’s closed doors.
It feels as though Iron Jinn wrote this track as a theme for Harley’s return, showing how much, she has changed while keeping listeners and comic readers on the edge of their seats. The surreal, layered psychedelic warmth of ‘The Glass Wall’ captures a psychotic drama on the brink of someone losing control, as the rhythm section delivers harmonic vocalisations, double-tracked momentum, and fuzzed-out reverb bass.
Once the drums launch into the chaotic introduction of ‘Landing on a Dream’, Iron Jinn goes straight for the jugular with a spooky Magma-like atmosphere and insane time signatures. At first, you might wonder, “How in the hell did they do that?” Iron Jinn simply throws the rule book into the fireplace, delving into cosmic darkness with sinister tones and eerie keyboard vibrations to keep the Zeuhl lords happy. They also add touches of the Rock in Opposition movement, particularly Present’s Le Poison era, while maintaining a heavy-rock orientation that feels like a volcanic eruption waiting to happen.
‘Residuum Strut’ continues with a twisted ‘60s lounge and library-music vibe, transforming into a cat-and-mouse chase that feels like an alternate soundtrack to Robert Clampett’s manic Bugs Bunny’s 1943 short Falling Hare. Its playful yet chaotic energy also recalls Chuck Jones’ Tom & Jerry work from the 1960s, while Iron Jinn pays homage to Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores’ Sister Death and The Opposite.
As the temperature rises with the rhythm section and its click-clacking drumbeats, the song moves into a dystopian lullaby filled with uplifting momentum and crystalline textures. Iron Jinn create their own ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ momentum, channeling Gershwin’s arrangements while pushing themselves forward without backing down.
Listening to ‘Soma’, I get the sense that Iron Jinn have poured their hearts into a walk across a deserted landscape straight out of Tarkovsky’s Stalker. The band ventures beyond krautrock, creating a pummelling tidal-wave attack and an ascending dream sequence where cosmic guitars and keyboards carry us deeper into the Zone with tremendous force.
They briefly return to the RIO movement on ‘Can I Watch’, before shifting into the Roxy Music atmosphere of a continuation where they had left off with ‘Chance Meeting’. Its gothic structure evokes Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and his final film, Eyes Wide Shut. Closing out Zeitgeist is the 15-minute epic ‘The Futurist’.
Here, Iron Jinn lays down the law once again, throwing another rule book into the fire without apology. You get the feeling that the band took a page from The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s The Inner Mounting Flame, diving deep into the unknown with fierce guitar work that erupts like a volcano, space-rock, doomy Sabbath and Motorpsycho-like vibrations, and Krokofant-esque drumming patterns that might even leave Billy Cobham in awe. The Netherlands-based group maintains the intensity while delivering its sound with an unapologetically in-your-face attitude.
‘The Futurist’ is the album’s centrepiece, bringing all the ammunition and psychic energy at you at 600 miles per hour, with no stop sign in sight on a deserted Mojave Desert highway. It is a wild ride worthy of Terry Gilliam’s 1998 cult classic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Zeitgeist on the Run is an unpredictable journey filled with unexpected twists, sinister overtones, and wonderful dynamics. Iron Jinn have taken what they started in 2023 and pushed it somewhere even stranger and more dangerous. And, quite simply, it is a kick-ass album from beginning to end.
