Iron Savior (Noise Records) 1997 1. "The Arrival"
[instrumental] (1:08) Germany seems to be a factory of quality heavy metal, power metal and speed metal. Iron Savior are yet another band to rise out of Germany. This, their debut album, is very similar in style to German contemporaries like Primal Fear and Gamma Ray. As a matter of fact, Iron Savior features Gamma Ray mainman Kai Hansen. Iron Savior even covers Gamma Ray's "Watcher In The Sky", which also happens to be one of the best tracks on the disc. "This Flight Tonight" is a Nazareth cover. (I prefer the original myself.) This cover, however, is not quite as well done. The rest of the material is all good. I have read a number of reviews criticizing this band for their "lack of originality". Originally was probably not what they were going for her, but rather they were just attempting to write good, solid, power metal songs. Personally I think they achieved this and then some. Iron Savior-Dark Assault (Noise) 2000 1. "Never Say Die"
(5:32) Yet another German speed metal band that fits into the Helloween/Gamma Ray school of heavy metal. Obviously part of the reason for this is because of the influence of Gamma Ray's Kai Hansen. Musically I think the band is above average to outstanding, however, some of the vocals hold this disc back. Kai Hansen's vocals can be heard on songs like "Solar Angels". What would make this band stand out a bit more is if the two vocalists traded off vocals within the context of one song. This certainly would have improved the band's cover of Judas Priest's "Delivering the Goods." Vocalist Piet Sielck has an aggressive midrange vocal style and sounds great on the verses, but it's quite obvious that he can't hang with some of the higher Halford screams. Instead of the screams the band tries to improvise by putting in some layered, gang-like vocals. It might have been cool to hear Kai belt out those higher parts since this is his forte. Lyrically "Dark Assault" is a concept album based on a sci-fi story that takes place in space in some future time with a fight between good and evil, as well as man and machine. I assume that this disc is just another part of the story that was begun on their debut disc, which I have yet to hear. Will have to investigate that disc as well.
|