Reviewed by:
monkey of doom, on february 25, 2008
0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Sound: I see no Iron savior reviews on this site, the only mention I can find of them is in the metal recommendations thread. It seems criminal that Iron Savior have been toiling away for years, pretty much unheard of, creating several outstanding metal records. They need a bit praise. For anyone who hasn't heard of them before, Iron Savior are a power metal outfit. Firmly routed in Judas priest style riffs and punchy vocals, the German band is the antithesis of that 'grab my nuts and sing higher' power metal (Sonata Arctica, Hello). On Vocals and guitar, we have a man called Piet Sielck. His voice is deep, at sometimes gargantuan and imposing. His range is pretty good considering this. Earlier in their career, IS had a slightly well known power metal icon named Kai Hansen on guitar and sometimes, lead vocals. When Kai left after the Dark assault album, many people wondered how IS would cope with his departure. They silenced their critics with the Condition red album. Megatropolis is their latest release, and this album is the subject of this review. Having seemingly abandoned the whole Iron savior concept apart from one track, IS have been reborn. Megatropolis draws lyrical inspiration from other Sci fi sources, I'm quite happy they decided to cover such subjects, we never would have had a song about a Cybernetic hooker (I kid you not). No such innovations are apparent in most Iron savior releases. They play paint by numbers heavy metal. But it's so damn good in places that it doesn't really matter at all. Iron savior harks back to the old heavy metal days, and have always been good at it. // 9
Lyrics and Singing: Lyrically, parts of the album shine. The second track 'Omega man' has some amazingly vivid sci-fi imagery, something IS have been doing since they started up. Other tracks shine in parts such as the aforementioned 'Cybernetic queen' and 'Farewell and Goodbye'. As I've mentioned before, Piet's voice is not your typical power metal sound. At some points he sounds like the guy from Blind Guardian. In the title track of the piece, his voice is so gravely and world weary. it's absolutely astounding, especially the first verse of this track where the lyrics really call for it. I'm giving this an 8 because some of the lyrics aren't very good at times. I don't particularly like the track 'Flesh'. The chorus is kinda annoying. // 8
Impression: Standout tracks on this album are 'Running riot', 'The omega man', the title track, 'Cybernetic queen' and 'Farewell and goodbye'. If an album has at least five tracks that are good then I'll like that album. I can't see these tracks being deleted off my MP3 player because of the quality of them. The last track mentioned ties up the Iron savior storyline and is quite touching, especially the last verse, in which the man/machine entity says goodbye to earth presumably (you need to read up about this storyline to understand what I'm talking about). Such a nice track to end the album with. Musically, each song I've mentioned has great ideas and are well executed. 'Running riot' for example has a stomping chorus, with Piet laughing maniacally at the end of it. Guitars are great also. Piesel and Piet do that sort of Priest style trade offs that never get boring. I thoroughly enjoyed this record along with Condition red and the self titled. It seems a bit of a shame that they aren't in the power metal big league. Put it simply, Megatropolis isn't ground breaking metal. But it doesn't try to be, like most of IS's back catalogue. What you have here is driving powerful old school metal. And it succeeds at doing that. // 8
/ my profile 
Was this review helpful to you? 