And thus begins the Iron Savior discography thread! I couldn't really think of a snappy intro other than that, so there ya go.

Iron Savior has an intricate history, and since it is difficult to explain properly, I'm going to borrow a bit from the Helloween discog thread:

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

In 1978 before Helloween became their official name they were known as Gentry with Kai Hansen and Piet Sielck. They quickly changed the name once again to Second Hell and recruited Ingo Schwitchenberg as their drummer and Marcus Grosskopf on Bass Guitar. Piet Sielck left to become a record producer and later on he would front the band Iron Savior once again along with Kai Hansen and Thoman Stauch ex- Blind Guardian drummer.

This shows the relation between Helloween and Iron Savior quite well -- they are very closely intertwined in their histories, as is Gamma Ray, which is also a band started as a Kai Hansen side project. And that's pretty much what Iron Savior was intended to be -- a single-shot side project for Kai to reunite with Piet Sielck. Originally, Kai and Piet planned to make merely one album with Iron Savior as an extension of the story told in the Gamma Ray song Watcher In The Sky. However, Piet wanted to continue on, and after the success of the first album, Kai agreed. And that's enough history for now, let's get into that first album...



Track listing:

1. The Arrival
2. Atlantis Falling
3. Brave New World
4. Iron Savior
5. Riding on Fire
6. Break It Up
7. Assailant
8. Children of the Wasteland
9. Protect the Law
10. Watcher in the Sky
11. For the World
12. This Flight Tonight (Joni Mitchell/Nazareth cover)

(there was an EP released prior to this album, however it just has some of the same songs as this full length, so it will be left at that)

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

Spoiler:
	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.

And thus concludes the lengthy explication of Iron Savior's debut album Iron Savior (deja vu, anyone?).

To conclude, I give Iron Savior's first album a 95/100, putting it up with the other great master crafted power metal albums of the age.

Great album by a cool, underrated band. Unlike a lot of the so-called "power metal" bands that suddenly started popping up like mushrooms in the late '90s these guys had a hint of thrash to them that immediately set them apart from all the symphonic dragons-n-elves-n-fairies stuff that was going on.

I picked this one up without hearing a note of their music based on a review in Metal Maniacs magazine years ago, obviously the Helloween/Kai Hansen connection was a major selling point too. I honestly can take or leave the whole science-fiction conceptual nonsense that surrounds the band, but each of the songs on this album are strong and can stand up by themselves even to a listener who has no knowledge of the "storyline."

I've always thought that "Break It Up" (which the booklet says is "for a friend") was about the drug-related death of former Helloween drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg, who committed suicide a few years previously.

One of my favorite late '90s metal albums and one of the few Euro-Power metal CDs from that period that still gets fairly regular spins nowadays. Iron Savior was off to a good start here.

Thanks for the feedback/additional info, FF!
And sorry for the lateness of the next installment; I've been rather busy recently, so I plan to write them all out when I have the time and release each one sequentially.

No probs... though it seems that you and I must be the only ones on the forum who listen to this band, since I'm the only one to comment thus far.

I only have 1 Iron Savior cd (Unification) so I'll reserve any comments on them til then.

That makes me sad, too, FF. I bet we'll get some more comments as we go along. And that's good, 007, because that's the next album!

I have a couple IS CDs, including the first album. I like it, but I haven't actually listened them in quite some time. Need to dig it out and give it a fresh spin. What I remember was that they reminded me of bands like Gamma Ray.

To me, Iron Savior are a little more "chunky" and less "widdly-widdly" than Gamma Ray (if you know what I mean), but they both share the same obsession with science fiction (and of course for a while they shared Kai Hansen...haha)

I read an article years back where Piet Sielck said something about how he credits bands like Annihilator and Megadeth for inspiring the "rhythmic drive" that he thought set Iron Savior apart from most of the other Euro-power metal bands.

I'm an Iron Savior fan. What I've heard, I've liked.

And now, after overcoming a combination of procrastination, busy-ness, and many other distractions, I will be posting these every weekend, so get ready!

This post will contain two albums; Unification and it's predecessor EP, Coming Home.



Track listing:

1. Coming Home
2. Forces of Rage
3. Atlantis Falling (live)
4. The Rage (Judas Priest cover)

This EP, in all honesty, is nothing special. Back when it was released, it was probably just a teaser for what was to come with Unification. The first two tracks are taken directly from the album, so I'll explain those later. Atlantis Falling is live, and the recording quality is so-so. Piet's voice sounds good, but it gets lost at times. Overall, it's just a straightforward live version. As for the cover of Judas Priest's The Rage on this album, it sounds decent. Piet's voice is interesting to hear covering Rob Halford, but he pulls it off in his own way. The rest of the band does a good tribute to Priest, and it is really the only thing that makes the EP worthwhile to buy. Nowadays you could just buy the single song offline, so that point is moot.

The album is nothing special, as I said, and really fairly unnecessary to buy, unless you're a collector or die-hard fan. But, if you do buy it, it's not a complete waste with The Rage.


And now for Unification!



Track listing:

1. Coming Home
2. Starborn
3. Deadly Sleep
4. Forces of Rage
5. Captain's Log
6. Brothers (of the Past)
7. Eye to Eye
8. Mind Over Matter
9. Prisoner of the Void
10. The Battle
11. Unchained
12. Forevermore

(there are two bonus versions of the album, the additional content of both of which can be summed up in a word: unsurprising. It does not surprise me in the slightest that Iron Savior would do good covers of Helloween, and their cover of Black Sabbath's Neon Knights sounds just as expected. The other song, Dragonslayer, isn't even by Iron Savior, a band called Excelsis won a contest to get the song included on the album. It's okay, I'm not really a fan of the vocals, but it's not too bad of a song. And that's about all for the bonuses, so back to the album at hand...)

The album starts off with a synthesized, spaced-out intro in the song Coming Home. Get ready, because there are a lot of those in the album. The song then whips into a bass-fueled frenzy, followed quickly by a sweeping guitar intro, and then the intense, powerful vocals that Iron Savior is known for. The song is a great example of Iron Savior's usual stylings, down to the chorally styled chorus followed by a guitar fill. Overall, a good start.

The next song, Starborn, however, has always left me feeling... disappointed. It's a bit too much like Coming Home, but also a bit weaker, too. It's faster, alright, but other than that it loses steam. Deadly Sleep is a bit better instrumentally, but they have Kai singing, and no offense to the man, but he doesn't sound all that good on this song. If Piet had sung it, it would've sounded much better, IMHO. But, with Kai, it just really makes the song one of the worst on the album.

However, as always, Iron Savior pulls back! The next song, Forces Of Rage is probably one of the best on the album. It starts with an intro (like Coming Home), carries into a nifty intro, and follows with yet another fine example of Iron Savior's combination riff-mastering and multi-tracked vocals. The solo in this song also makes it stick out as one of the better songs, as it has just the right balance between speed and technical difficulty.

The next song, Captain's Log, is a little explanation for the story. Just skip it, unless you really need a refresher on the story (speaking of which, my reviews will no longer include the story, as you can read the whole thing here: http://www.iron-savior.com/story.php). The next song makes up for the short break that we just experienced by hitting hard and fast from the very beginning, and carrying through with this power until the very end. Yet another good song on this album. The problem is, Eye To Eye kind of drags on. It has what can essentially be called a multi-tiered intro... all the way through to the first chorus. It all flows, but in a bad way. The chorus makes it memorable, at least, but otherwise, it's not too great.

Now comes the problem I most notice with all of Iron Savior's works -- they all seem to slow down, and fall into a monotonous zone in the album. They usually have pretty great choruses, but the rest of the song just fails, and basically fades far off into the background, which is okay if you're doing something else while listening to the album, but if you're critically listening to it (like when you are trying to review it), it becomes blatantly obvious. This is the case for Eye To Eye, Mind Over Matter, and Prisoner of the Void. This is not to say they do not have their good attributes, it's just that they're mostly lost in amongst the huge amount of melancholy. Melancholic power metal... what an oxymoron. Alas, back to the album!

The next song, The Battle, is fittingly epic to its name. It chugs along in the beginning, but still has the rise and fall you'll have come accustomed to. The lyrics are a bit softer on the edges than the rest of the album, they're still powerful and instilling with the courage and force Sielck writes with. This is probably the most epic song on the album, making it one of my automatic favorites. Unchained is in the same vain as The Battle, but is more bright, symbolizing the victory at hand in the story. The vocals are in a different style than most of the album in the verses, and it sounds good, albeit different.

The final song on the album is called Forevermore. It is the slowest song, and it has a more sad tone, yet still symbolic of the victory they have won in the story. This is Kai's second vocal song on the album, and it sounds... okay. Again, Piet probably would've sounded better, but Kai does well in this slower environment as opposed to Deadly Sleep's faster tempo.

This album, though by some it's considered one of Iron Savior's best, to me, pales in comparison. It's sad, really, because there was great potential here, but as is the norm with sophomore releases, it is not nearly as good as the first album. It's not their absolute worst, but it is by no means their best. Still, it is a good power metal concept album, and it will not leave you extremely disappointed, but to the standard Iron Savior set with their first album and the ones that follow, it is not so good.


And there we have the next two Iron Savior albums! I will review Interlude next weekend, and as I said before, the Iron Savior story can be read here.

Though I loved the debut I thought UNIFICATION was kinda disappointing. "Coming Home" was a great track but to be honest it's the only song I even remember from it (aside from that godawful last song by the contest-winning band "Excelsis," who thankfully went on to complete and total obscurity after this brief bout of exposure).

I ended up trading this one off some years ago just because I never listened to it. I did give Iron Savior another chance when DARK ASSAULT came out so I guess I'll be back when you get to that one.

Like I had stated,Unification is the only Iron Savior disc I have and I love it. Reading what you guys are saying about it being a letdown,I really gotta hear their other stuff now.

Like I said, it's not bad, but in comparison... yes, check out their other work!

Well now, I don't plan on getting behind again. By this time tomorrow night, Interlude and I've Been To Hell will be up, I promise.

EDIT: I'm a lying jerkface. Sorry. School and work have been weighing me down even more than summer had been. I'll do my best for this weekend!

Take your time. Looking forward to hearing about my favorite Iron Savior album by far - curious to read your take.