Iron Savior

If Walls of Jericho was played by Judas Priest… this is a rather quick summation of Iron Savior’s career. The speed metal mayhem of the former combined with the anthemic fist-pumping rhythm of the latter, topped with some of Piet Sielck’s inimitable vocals – essentially, Peavy with a more booming presence but without any of the idiosyncrasies. All of that comes together to make some banner great fuckin’ metal… later on in Iron Savior’s discography. Their self-titled debut album definitely has some pretty sick cuts too, but it’s pretty clear that everything here was only building up to something greater than themselves.

It starts off on a high note, at any rate. Just the crunch of those riffs leading into “Atlantis Falling” is enough to get you hooked right in, but it’s the smoothness of the actual riffing and the melody produced by it that keeps you right on in there. The speed metal symphonies that are “Brave New World” and “Riding on Fire”, as well as the out and out fist-pumping “Iron Savior”, absolutely ride these crunchy grooves like nobody’s business. That break in “Riding on Fire” before they go back to a breakneck pace has it positively riding the sky! All no-nonsense, no-frills power/speed metal that makes their impact known with some hard-hitting riffs and Sielck’s equally hard-hitting vocals.

The rest of the album, however? Eh…

There are some pretty slick moments – “Children of the Wasteland” has this pre-chorus riff that goes hard and its chorus certainly has an admirable scale to it, and “For the World” has some cool vocal trade-offs between Hansi and Sielck. On the whole, there are still some memorable choruses like the aforementioned two songs, so there’s that to look forward to. Other than that, the album comes across quite underdeveloped. It’s like they had enough in the tank for a few songs and then threw up their arms and went “fuck it” when it came to writing the rest. The songs are fine and there definitely ain’t no complaints here if they happen to be on or anything, but the facts are, the riffs don’t hit as hard, the melodies come across more stock than anything else, and not a lot really sticks. It’s a weakness of the more meat and potatoes style of music – like, every song has to hit, not just four out of nine, you know?

What doesn’t exactly help this album is the production lacking a strong bottom-end – something that they’d sort out after this album, thankfully. But here, the weaker punches are definitely noticeable as they end up really not having the impact. That being said, it does show just how well-written the opening four numbers are as all they lack is that bottom-end. The pulsating pummelling of “Riding on Fire”, the hooky “Atlantis Rising”, the speedy slugger that is “Brave New World”, and who could forget the anthemic “Iron Savior”.

There are some deviations from the formula, but they’re a mixed bag. On the lower end, “Break it Up” absolutely comes across as an obligatory nothing ballad. This had always been a weakness of Hansen’s, and Sielck’s workaround of bringing in a heavier riff towards the end does it no favors. On the higher end is “Watcher in the Sky” with a more patiently built structure and a popping chorus – although it’s also featured on Gamma Ray’s Somewhere Out in Space, which came out at about the same time, and that album is considerably better than this one. It certainly comes across more like a Gamma Ray song than everything else on this album.

At the same thing, this is about what you would expect out of a starting album from a new project started by two established guys (Kai Hansen and Thomen Stauch) and an emerging star (Piet Sielck). There is an untold amount of promise that would come out if tapped more into. As it is, Iron Savior’s self-titled album has its moments that make it worth looking back into, and… that’s about it.

In 1997, the self-titled debut album of Iron Savior was released. With the slightly thrashier feel that Piet Sielck brought to the usual sound of Kai's sweeping choruses and powerful verses, combined with the extremely story-based science fiction theme, Iron Savior carved itself out a niche in the crowded world of European power metal.

On the more technical side of things, the album is basically a masterpiece. The album kicks off with the ominous tones of The Arrival, marked with an electric fanfare, which is very fitting of this extremely sci-fi concept. Then, we begin to get into the setting of the story -- we learn of the destruction of Atlantis at the hands of one of their own in Atlantis Falling, and of the dystopian world which has developed in its stead in Brave New World. Both songs have quite a thrash-influenced sound, primarily in the drums, though it's also rather obvious in the riffs of the verse. As I've said, it gives the album a refreshing edge, but it also captures the current themes of hopelessness, fear, retribution, and tyranny quite well, contributing once again to making this the quintessential concept album for power metal.

Carrying on with the story, the next song introduces the primary antagonist -- the Iron Savior (of course, facing the stereotypical eponymity metal has grown to love). The Savior is poorly programmed, and is killing the humans he believes now infest the world, though really he was supposed to protect. A rather interesting twist in the story, if I do say so myself. Sadly, this song lacks the intricacy of others on the album (except for the solo, which is of course godly). But what it lacks in intricacy, it makes up for with sheer power. Sielck's vocals are at their peak force in this track, and yet again the story is captured perfectly in the song's ferocity.

The next two songs, in my opinion, are the driest part of the album. The story behind the first of the two, Riding On Fire, is of the wisest of the Atlanteans who fled before Atlantis' destruction. Fortunately, the song delivers in the thrashy was we've already come to love with listening to this album, but unfortunately, it leaves you wanting more. It is hailed as one of the group's best, but in my opinion, it is a great starting point that so much more could've been done with. The next song, Break It Up, actually doesn't have anything to do with the story at all -- it's an anti-drug song. I think we all can respect the effort put into this power ballad and its purpose, but really, it is the only part of the album that doesn't flow well. Also, there's not much in the way of a show of talent in this song. It's a bit too slow for Hansen to shine (though the solo in the final verse is rather well-made), and a bit too quiet for Sielck to kick it up a notch. Though still not a bad tune, in comparison to the mastery of the rest of the album, it pales.

In fact, one would be sadly mistaken to think that this valley would continue. The next song is definitely my favorite off the album, and it story basically goes like this: "Hey robot, you think you can just come here and kill us just because your programming sucks? Well f*ck you too! You'll never take us alive!". This track, Assailant, is truly an anthem of epic proportions -- it's the story of an entire world battling a giant robot and its mechanized legions. If that doesn't make a power metal anthem, I don't know what does. The vocals reach new heights in their power on this one, with one the most epic chorus the band has done to this day, and some of the more technically masterful solos the album sees.

Since this has been going track by track, I will sum up the next few songs and the story that goes with them in this paragraph, as the best and worst tracks of the album have already been described. The next few tracks describe the Iron Savior's war from different perspectives: first from the people's in the future after the Savior has destroyed the world, second from the eyes of the machine itself, and third from the eyes of the wisest of the Atlanteans who escaped in Riding On Fire. The final track of the story (featuring vocals by Hansi Kursch, thus proving that it always pays to have Thomen on drums) describes the human's continued battle against the machines and their pleas to the Savior for forgiveness and freedom. And that is where it leaves us, with a cliffhanger! As was said, this was meant to be a one-shot side-project, so it's ambiguity does have a purpose. However, it will all be cleared in the next posting, never fear! Now for the technical parts, the eighth track overall, Children Of The Wasteland possesses some of the same melancholy of the very first songs, but with the extra sting of utter defeat, which is heavily reflected in the minor scaling and dissonance of this song. The next, Protect The Law, has a similar feeling to Brave New World in that it describes the ferocity of this new world, and shows the evil of the machine. Once again, the heaviness indicates the tyranny, and the even greater roughness on the vocals, specifically on the line "Crime has to end!", shows this song's story well. The next track, Watcher In The Sky, is generally the basis for the album as I said in the history. It has obvious merits -- not only is it the epitome of the intricacy on this album, but Hansen also does a killer vocal performance. Ultimately, though, this song caused the later rift and problems in the band that led to Hansen's leaving it. The final song relating to the story, For The World, has the obvious bonus of Hansi's vocals, but it also is one of the slower tracks, making it fairly unique. Overall, these final four story-related songs cap off the album well. But wait! There's more! The final song of the album is a cover of the Joni Mitchell song This Flight Tonight (though really, it more closely sounds like Nazareth's cover of the song). There's not much to say about this other than that the band did the song justice, and even a service by adding a bit more of a heavier edge to it. It of course serves no purpose to the album, but I always appreciate the occasional cover.

In the end, this is an exceptional album, especially considering it is the first the group made together, and it should be a favorite of all Euro-power fans.

-Originally posted at heartofmetal.net-

When people describe melodic power metal with huge choruses and speedy passages, they usually say something like "Influenced by Gamma Ray, Iron Savior, and Grave Digger" or whatever. I had already known about Grave Digger and Gamma Ray, so I decided to check out Iron Savior.

Iron Savior play a distinct brand of speed/power metal, with a more thrashy approach than their peers Helloween and Gamma Ray, due to the presence of Piet Sielck. Though Helloween, Gamma Ray, and Iron Savior are pretty much brother-bands, Iron Savior hold a much rougher edge than the previous two.

And this is what makes them so awesome after so many listens. This, and the albums following it (Unification and Interlude) are essential Iron Savior listening, and this is the most original and classic of them all. The production is more organic than the rest of the Iron Savior catalogue, with defunct Blind Guardian drummer Thomen Stauch at the helm, with his trademark primitive double bass style. The twin guitars of Kai Hansen and Piet Sielck work together like a dream, with several complex melodies running through each song. The solos are speedy and often overdubbed and harmonized to great effect, and help the melodies of the songs along, instead of just using the solo break to show off. A great example is Riding On Fire, which has a solo that makes me want to floor the accellerator when I listen to it.

Like the other popular "iron ____" band Iron Maiden, Iron Savior's eponymous debut is like a time machine of sorts, with each song written at a dramatically different time, ranging from 1980 (Iron Savior [song]) to ones written later, in 1982 and 1983. Of course, I assume the songs have been reworked to fit Piet's evolved musical style. That being said, Iron Savior have a very mid-80's vintage sound going on here on this debut. Piet shies away from the more modern "femme boy" style of singing popular with singers like Kai Hansen, Tobias Sammett, Michael Kiske, etc... for a more retro rough edged growl, adding to the thrashy feel of the music.

And of course, because it's german, you can expect really epic and heavily layered choruses. Here, Iron Savior pretty much invent the archetypal power metal chorus, with heavy male choirs and anthemic vocal lines that levitate your hands and contort them into the devil horns. Just listen to Brave New World, Atlantis Falling, Iron Savior, For The World, or hell, listen to any song, they all have anthemic choruses, even the ballad, Break It Up. And unlike Iron Savior's peers Helloween and Gamma Ray, Break It Up is actually a kickass song, not the usual uber cheesy and almost uniformly terrible power ballad.

Overall, this puts the power back in power metal. And while later releases often get tagged as being derivative and suffering from unoriginality, this one is completely devoid of that. If not the first 3 albums, at least get this. This is classic power/speed metal.

Ah, catchy power metal at its best. And I mean really catchy. While it doesn’t degenerate into forced and excessive hooks like so many power bands, Iron Savior’s debut sticks in your mind like only the very best albums. Not to say that Iron Savior succeeding albums don’t also share this trait, but here it is fresh and unique. Of course, I might be biased as this album got me into the band. Considering the similarities between any two Iron Savior album, I suspect that the order you enter their catalogue will determine your reaction to each particular album.

But enough insinuation about Iron Savior’s lack of ingenuity, because you can’t really fault their first album for such a flaw. At this time, only Scanner and Gamma Ray were putting out power metal with an outer space theme, or really power metal at all. With Kai Hansen’s influence on or participation in this power metal tripartite in mind, one could easily apply to Hansen the distinction of almost single-handedly resuscitating non-extreme metal in the mid-90s. This in no way discredits the contributions of many other bands in this disturbing time for metal, however, the explosion of power metal in the last decade almost assuredly originates in Hansen’s various projects, or in the case of Scanner, his obvious influence. The prime creative contributor for Iron Savior is somewhat muddled, though indelible signs of Hansen’s style abound throughout the debut. The comparison between Gamma Ray and Iron Savior at this time impresses me with how it coincides with Hansen finally getting his act together in Gamma Ray and how that translated into a remarkable contribution to Iron Savior.

Of course, noticeable differences between the bands emerge. I would say Iron Savior draws influence from older, heavier sources than Gamma Ray. While I would never label Gamma Ray as flower metal, it surely inspired modern European power metal with its big choruses, almost uniformly terrible ballads and melodic speed metal riffage. Iron Savior’s riffing style throws in a thrash aesthetic and at least at the time of this album limits the “big power metal chorus” that sometimes gets tiring. Similarly, Sielck’s vocals fall on a lower and rougher scale, which compares favorably to the lower registers of Rob Halford’s voice, and diverges from the eunuchs fronting most power metal bands. In fact, I would say that Sielck’s voice is the most defining characteristic of the band and he ranks as one of my favorite vocalists despite later problems of unoriginality.

I don’t have much to say about each individual song. Most are pretty similar in style; if you like any Iron Savior song, you will like enjoy nearly any Iron Savior. I will commend “Riding on Fire” for a spectacular chorus and “Break It Up” for being, at least nominally, a ballad with Kai Hansen that doesn’t suck. “Watcher in the Sky” delineates the high point for me with its superb songwriting able to connect the varied music on display within, but “Protect the Law” gives it competition. Like most Iron Savior covers, the Nazareth cover frankly disappoints, but does let you know that the band has its heart in the right place.

I will end this with a comment on the production. Iron Savior nails it on all of their albums, though it sounds somewhat enervated on later albums, though it could be due to the music itself having that quality. Here, as always, it is heavy, distinct and yet quite able to hold a melody. Far better that Gamma Ray which oscillates between too busy, too rough and too light. Whatever you say about Iron Savior must be amended by an admission that they know exactly what they are doing and they do it quite well. That is something I wish I could say of more bands.

In the year 1996 the genre of melodic power metal was all but dead to the world. The alleged alternative rock/grunge craze that had seemingly come out of nowhere had sputtered out almost as quickly as it had come into being, and we were left with a rag tag group of retro Ramones/Sex Pistols punk movement spearheaded by the likes of the Offspring and Green Day, and an up and coming fusion of Punk and Ska. But metal never really dies, it merely takes vacations before going on the next rampage.

Fresh off the first Gamma Ray album where he had taken on the role of front man for the first time in nearly a decade, Kai Hansen teamed up with record producer and former band mate from long ago Piet Selick, and Blind Guardian veteran and drummer Thomen Stauch. Though this was merely conceived as a one time solo project by all parties involved, and a means for Piet Selick to finally record some of the music that he written long ago (back before Helloween was formed), what resulted was something so phenomenal that it could not be kept as a mere anomaly/experiment in the metal genre.

This album is unique not only in that it was the first Iron Savior release, but also in the varied approach to song writing. Among these many compositions are the typical high tempo cookers such as "Atlantis Falling", "Brave New World", "Riding on Fire" and "Protect Law". However, we also have some rather interesting retro metal songs such as the title track of the album, "Assailant" and "Children of the Wasteland". In addition, we have the slightly more progressive power metal tracks like the mid-temp and melodic "Watcher in the Sky", the Pink Floydish ballad "Break it up", and the quasi-epic anthem "For the World". Rounding out the track list is the albums's prelude "The Arrival", which functions well as an overture to which any live performance would begin, and the cover song "This Flight Tonight" by Nazareth.

The one flaw in this album that keeps it from being absolutely perfect is it's production, an issue that would later be fixed with the entrance of the classic line-up of Iron Savior. The guitar sound is a bit too raw at times, mostly on the faster tracks. The bass is barely present in many cases, probably due to the fact that Piet Selick was pulling Quadruple duty by singing lead vocals, playing guitar, keyboards, and bass. Although the function of the bass as a support instrument is important, the way it is de-emphasized in the lion's share of the songs is reminiscent of Metallica's "And Justice For All".

The musicianship at work here is where the true strength lies. Thomen Stauch's drumming with Blind Guardian has become the stuff of legends, and his abilities are as present as ever here. Piet and Kai do a fine job on the lead and rhythm guitar end, giving us some rather impressive riffs. And the combined songwriting efforts of Kai and Piet, though at times a bit inconsistent, are a clear indication of the direction that Power Metal would ultimately head in.

This is basically the blue print by which several bands in the German metal scene would soon reclaim the majesty of metal but a few years later. The speed, the technique, the melody and the story lines that would spawn a new era of heavy metal concept albums. The story line in this one would develop into a series of excellent power metal albums, all bringing the trappings of Science Fiction into a new era of Judas Priest influenced greatness. Highly recommended to all power metal, old school speed and traditional metal fans alike.