martindavey87 Released shortly after the bands second studio album, ‘Interlude’ is the 1999 EP by German power metal band, Iron Savior. While their debut album was decent enough, their follow-up, ‘Unification’ was a solid release, with some strong compositions and performances. But sadly, they seemed to have gone back a step with this rather mundane, by-the-numbers disc.

Broken into two parts, live tracks and new tracks, there’s not really anything here that stands out. The live songs, taken from the bands 1998 Wacken Open Air festival performance, are okay. They’re nothing amazing, although the crowd seem into it, which is pretty nice to hear, but I think I’d prefer the studio versions.

Then there are the new compositions, and man... these suck. I just totally can’t get into any of them, and not for any particular reason either, they’re just not doing anything for me. The best one is a bloody Judas Priest cover, which in itself isn’t bad, but speaks volumes about the bands original output here.

Overall, this is one for die-hard fans... if any actually exist.

Kingcrimsonprog Iron Savior are the cult favourite German Power Metal band named after a sentient spacecraft that initially spawned as a collaboration between Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray fame and former Gamma Ray producer Piet Sielck. Their third studio album, Dark Assault, was released on Noise Records in 2001 and was their final album with Kai in the band before they forged more of their own unique identity and step out of Gamma Ray’s shadow.

Of their three Kai-era albums, Dark Assault is in my opinion the finest and most accomplished, and has some of the most memorable material and definitely the best production job. I’d also argue it has the least filler and works the best as a single journey all the way through. The style of music on here is very much in the Melodic European Power Metal theme, but without as many tinges of neoclassical or folk or progressive or indeed symphonic influences as some of their peers. It has more of the sort of biker feel as say, the first two Running Wild records (before they went Pirate themed) rather than Symphony Of Enchanted Lands or something. The track ‘Solar Wings’ has Kai on lead vocals instead of Piet, which makes it feel a little bit like Gamma Ray (but in general the band sound distinct by the very different vocals when Piet sings and the Andreas Kück keyboards. Its also got less Queen influence and less Thrash influence. Its a bit more of a simple pounding NWOBHM influence).

Highlights include the very catchy ‘Never Say Die’ and the bad ass ‘Predators’ as the mid-paced ‘Made Of Metal.’ There’s also a neat Judas Priest cover at the end, which suits the style of the album very well.

When you consider their lower pitched vocal style, Sci-Fi themes, and less over-the-top style than some bands in the genre, Iron Savior may be a lot more palatable to new-comers of Power Metal than say a Rhapsody or Freedom Call and sit in that same sort of bold, pure Judas Priest meets Accept metal that Primal Fear deal in. If you are into Saxon and Priest and bands like that, but are slightly afraid of Power Metal’s reputation, this album would be a great dip-your-toe-in-the-water album. It also goes without saying that I’d recommend it to fans of Gamma Ray (as long as you understand that they aren’t just a carbon copy).

adg211288 There are artists out there who prove time and time again that they are a consistent force within their genre that can always be replied upon to deliver a decent album every few years. For the German power metal scene one such band is Iron Savior. Active since 1996, they had an early claim to fame by having Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray, ex-Helloween) as a member but they were always more the band of frontman Piet Sielck and since Kai Hansen's exit after third album Dark Assault (2001) have still been going strong. Though it's strong in such a way that they never deliver a weak album, not because they're churning out gems each and every time. There have been a few excellent Iron Savior albums over the years, most recently The Landing (2011), which I'd say is actually their best overall, but never one where I've wanted to review them with a top tier mark. Titancraft (2016) is their ninth album.

Though Titancraft starts quite strong once its intro Under Siege is out of the way with the double header of its title track and Way of the Blade, it quickly becomes apparent that once again we're dealing with a business as usual Iron Savior release. Which is to say it's got their signature guitar driven power metal sound and excellent vocals from Piet Sielck, a few brilliant tracks that would fit onto a hypothetical best of Iron Savior compilation which would be the aforementioned duo along with Strike Down the Tyranny, some more heavy metal based material such as Gunsmoke to give the album's pace a little variety and overall every song is very good, but they don't make too much impact on me. That's because that's exactly what Iron Savior do and can be replied upon for. I think that would explain why it's taken me so long to really delve into this album: the band have become predictable, and so while it's every bit of strong as I expected it to be, Titancraft just isn't an exciting release.

I think that I do prefer Titancraft by a small margin to their previous release Rise of the Hero (2014), but we're talking a miniscule difference. This, like any other Iron Savior album with perhaps the sole exception of the original Megatropolis (2007) (I haven't heard the partially rerecorded 2015 2.0 release of it), would serve as a decent starting point for anyone looking to discover this band, but once you've heard a few releases from them, it all gets a bit samey. I'll score the album as the material deserves, but it would be so nice to hear Iron Savior really knock it out of the park one day, either by delivering an album where every song is an killer as the usual few highlights, or by doing something unexpected for once.

Kingcrimsonprog Helloween’s family tree has given us a lot of great musical moments over the years. If you are interested in that band, you can follow the members in and out of that Teutonic institution and find quite a lot of great bands to get into. Not only can you follow a line of logic to Gamma Ray and Freedom Call, or backwards to Blind Guardian at a stretch. Almost anywhere you look there’s some cool band that probably suits your tastes.

One of the great bands you can find on this musical treasure hunt is Germany’s Iron Savior, formed by Kai Hansen, Piet Sielck and Thomen Stauch. They’re a melodic Power Metal band with Sci-Fi themed lyrics and a concept about a self-aware spaceship. Yeah… not exactly wizards and dragons anymore.

Opening with a military march style intro and dual guitar harmonies with an almost Queen flavour on opener ‘The Arrival’ the album lulls you in, before bursting out of the traps with the first proper song ‘Atlantis Falling;’ an up-tempo rocker with that heavier-than-NWOBHM, lighter-than-Thrash style of riffing, some bouncy drumming with lots of space and breaks to show off in, a slightly adventurous and atypical song structure without being outright proggy, and a rather unique vocal style within the subgenere. This is no Bruce Dickinson or Geoff Tate copycat, this is something different. Its also got an absolutely delicious guitar solo that displays everything great about Power Metal; the feel, melody and fun abound.

This song sets up the feel of the whole album, you’ve got driving,forward pressing drums creating a sense of urgency, you’ve got quick chuggy riffs and you’ve got barked low pitched vocals then it gets offset by (sometimes effects-laiden) catchy clean vocal sections with anthemic sing-along choruses and elevated to greatness in the mid-sections once the guitar solos come in and really take things from good to great. There’s one piano ballad in the middle, but otherwise its variations on fast and faster, simple and slightly adventurous, but all within a reasonably similar framework. Depending on what mood you’re in you may call that samey. I call it focused and consistent.

Highlights include the fun catchy title track which feels somewhere between Judas Priest’s Delivering The Goods and Motley Crue’s Live Wire during the verses before going off-track with its mid-paced robotic chorus, as well as the very Blind Guardian flavoured ‘Riding On Fire’ and the Hansi Kürsch guest spot ‘For The World.’ Although to be honest, its all pretty unskippable.

The band would later go on to new line-ups, move further out of the shadows of other bands and become more of a full on real band than a fun side-project supergroup of sorts, but this strong and fun debut is still essential listening for fans of the band and the genre at-large. Piet never needed the other guys to deliver his vision, but its damn nice that he chose to back then, and damn fun we can still listen to it now. Highly recommended.

martindavey87 Iron Savior are a power metal "supergroup" that consists of Gamma Ray's Kai Hansen, Blind Guardian's Thomas Stauch, and record producer Piet Sielck (who?). To sum this up in one sentence, this, their self-titled debut, is a concept album focusing on a self-aware space ship...

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Wait...

Hold on...

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Okay, you're still reading. It'll take more than self-aware space ships to detract you. Good job. So let's keep straight faces and focus on what matters most... the music.

Taking what sounds like a terrible idea for a rock opera and turning it into a half-decent metal record is not an achievement to be scoffed at, and what this band may lack in finesse and quality, they certainly make up for in energy and enthusiasm. If you can look past the endless Judas Priest comparisons and the stench of rotten cheese, some of the tracks on 'Iron Savior' are pretty good, of course, some of them are also pretty terrible.

'Iron Savior', 'Assailant', 'Protect the Law' and 'For the World' are all power metal classics (a paradox?), whereas some of the songs, such as 'Riding on Fire', 'Children of the Wasteland' and 'Break It Up' are absolute stinkers. And Sielck's vocals don't help much. Sometimes they fit the music perfectly, sometimes they sound a bit over-the-top and ridiculous. It's hard to decide if I like them or not.

There's some fine riffing going on, as would be expected by power metal godfather Kai Hansen, and the cohesiveness between himself and Sielck is akin to that of similar bands in the genre, such as Gamma Ray (coincidence?), Helloween or Judas Priest. It's just a shame that memorable riffs aren't too common, but hey, the good ones are fantastic, so I'll give 'em that.

With any doubts in mind, you just have to remind yourself that it's a power metal album about a self-aware space ship. A bloody self-aware space ship!!! The cheesy lyrics and repetitive guitar riffs suddenly don't seem that bad now, do they?