Interlude

Interlude is an interesting proposition, to say the least. A mixture of live recordings, new material they couldn’t quite fit onto Unification, and a cover of the Judas Priest classic “Desert Plains” should at least make for a fun bit of fanservice. Unification was already a bit of a marathon run and if any more tracks were to be added, I think it’d actually explode. Not to mention that they’d drag the quality down, as the new material is generally decent at best. The choruses are generally fine – vaguely catchy, a bit of escalation from the riffing – but the verses vacillate between plodding (“Stonecold” is a particularly egregious example of this) and half-developed, like they were left on the cutting room floor during the Unification sessions. “The Hatchet of War” bucks that trend with some punchy speed metal riffing and some expertly layered melodies for the chorus. Still, that’s one out of four that stands tall enough. Otherwise, this just has “diehard fans only” written all over it.

The live recordings of five songs from the self-titled album are given the bottom end that they needed. This gives “For the World” a bit of extra oomph for those pugilistic, mid-paced sort of triplets in the first half of its verses and Sielck’s vocals have more oomph – more power to them that gives him a more booming presence. Otherwise, it’s just this decently hard-hitting pre-chorus and sing-a-long chorus within an okay song. It’s a bit out of place since three of the other four are the best cuts from the self-titled album (although no “Atlantis Returns” makes Homer something something), and the other song is the joint Gamma Ray/Iron Savior power metal classic, “Watchers in the Sky”. Other than that, umm… some of the added duets between Sielck and Hansen in “Brave New World” are pretty cool. That’s about it.

Definitely appreciate those touches, but they don’t add all that much extra life to the songs. Some extra bottom end and a slightly sharper tone are cool novelties, but about all they make me want to do is get a time machine to travel back in 1999 to see this show. Really, it’d be easy to surmise the whole thing by saying “the Judas Priest cover is the best thing about the album”. The new material – “The Hatchet of War” aside – is generally mediocre, and the live recordings, while fine on their own terms, are certainly no Live Without Sense. They’re not quite Unleashed in the East. Which leaves us with the Judas Priest cover. Iron Savior’s cover of “Desert Plains” is faithful to the original – it still has that catchy beat and that overall vibe of just cruising through the desert given its more chill composition. But that gives us a good cover and a good song amidst mediocre material and incrementally better but relatively none too necessary live recordings.

It’s what it is.

Upon listening to this release, I was introduced to something that I have not been fortunate enough to witness in the flesh, Iron Savior playing live. I tend not to be a fan of live CDs, mostly because the effect of the live show is lost and what you essentially have are imperfect versions of the studio songs. Like with Freedom Call, this album is an exception and delivers something stellar, even without the added visuals.

Piet's vocal performance on all 5 of the live tracks is excellent, as is Kai's on his compositional offering Watcher in the Sky. The guitar sound doesn't drown out the drums and bass, and the solos are all perfectly present above the thundering rhythm section. The live rendition of "For the World" is actually even better than the studio version, containing a bit more intensity in the vocals on Piet's part. "Rinding on Fire" maintains most of it's power, although I did miss the acoustic guitar sound that was present during the interlude of the album version. "Brave New World" is on par with it's studio version, although the vocal interchange between Piet and Kai during the bridge is a nice touch. "Iron Savior" functions perfectly as the opening track of the live half of the album, as it embodies the spirit of the band and is a nice middle ground between their up-tempo cookers and their occasional slow heavy tracks.

In addition to the live offerings, we are also treats to 4 new original tracks by the band. These songs function as a bridge in the story concept of the second album (Unification) and the third (Dark Assault). The story itself is loaded with intrigue, introducing a race of aliens that pray upon others and who have far advanced technology (similar to Independence Day), and the songs play off the situations in this story quite well. "Contortions of Time" is a dark, yet catchy track that introduces us to this savage alien race the same way Judas Priest would during the Painkiller era, with blazing speed. "Touching the Rainbow" is a more anthem-like track, giving a sense of hope within what appears to be a hopeless situation, highlighted with a powerful chorus and some crazy solos traded off between Piet and Kai. "Stone Cold" is a gloomy slower track, topped off with a rather somber bluesy intro, telling the story of a doomed ship and a captain contemplating his own death. "Hatchet of War" is another anthem, but with a more epic set of tempo changes, where the human race and their allies declare their resistence to the threat.

Track 10 is a cover of Judas Priest's Desert Plains, and is pretty much par for the course in terms of their regular hommages to the band that most influenced them. I saw a special on VH1 not long ago where Judas Priest was being paid tribute by Godsmack, and compared to the covers that Savior has put forth, they were as medicore as they come. But unfortunately America isn't offering many great metal bands these days.

In conclusion, this album is the best of both worlds, a great collection of live performances mixed together with a rather intense mini-story concept album that contains the missing link between Iron Savior's 2 greatest studio albums. This is one that all Iron Savior, Speed Metal, Power Metal, and NWOBHM faithful should not be without.