The nineties were often thought of as a decade when metal died and grunge took over. Well, someone forgot to tell Piet Sielck the famed guitarist and producer, because in 1996 he said “screw grunge” and founded one of the most enduring power mental band's ever in Iron Savior. With twelve albums currently under their belt, the tour du metal force will release it's their thirteenth album on March 8th, 2019, titled Kill Or Get Killed.
Now, here a quick side note. There are very few bands in metal that can consistently do the same thing album after album and still have fans continuing to stay on the bandwagon. Iron Savior, much like Slayer, AC/DC, Amon Amarth, and every black metal band ever, have their own particular sound. And on this album - like all their albums - they had what I can only described as a true power metal sound. And with this first song, “Kill Or Get Killed”, Piet and the boys establish a fact that they have not lost the right to be in that niche and label their music thusly.
A quick side note number two here: I come to the part of any review where the writer dazzels you with a barrage of verbage that at it's best is pontification and at its worst is just bad writing. I’ll try not to insult your intelligence with cliche and remain as true as I can to what I really thought.
Whether it was the lyrics, or the intense timing signature, or the chord progression, or the background artillery of the bass and drums, or especially the accurate and technical solos. there was one phrase that i kept thinking while I heard this album. “Its us against the world, man!“ Now I know that doesn't really described the music, but i know there are many fans who judge and reactive music this way and in fact you then you know what I meant by that phrase.
This album inspired the ‘brotherhood of metal’ response in me. Like a baby fans it's toes with the Babinski relex, I heard this music and it fanned the metal attitude response in me.
I'll tell you the first afternoon I heard “From Dust And Rubble” which is my personal favorite off this album, I was at the gym, and the welling of aggression and mob-like unity i felt with Iron savior at that moment, inspired me to mount an assault on the hot yoga class which happened to be in session in the next room. And the look on those old ladies’ faces as I stormed in screaming “you'll never stop us you bastards”… well, let’s just say it was awkward. And though I scored a win for true heavy metal that day, I also scored a restraining order and 120 hours of community service.
I did try to think of clever ways and adjectives to adjectives to divide the songs from this album into categories for you, but in the end there's only one category for the songs on this album - it’s what I call the aforementioned hard and fast true power metal sound. With titles like “Roaring Thunder”, “Stand Up And Fight”, “Heroes Ascending”, “Eternal Quest”, “Legends Of Glory”, “Never Stop Believing”, “Kill Or Get Killed”, and the personal favorite of mine, “From Dust And Rubble”, Iron Savior delivers a photonic barrage of sound, expertly mixed, and technically proficient, all the while using balls-to-the-wall metal riffs and solos. And Sielck delivers his vocals in a consistent torrent of amped up Dio and Kiskiesk sound.
Kill Or Get Killed what I’m fond of calling an old sound with a new format. It’s music that keeps my attention, and allows me to satisfy my overly inflated sense of nostalgia, and yet fit’s the mold of new metal that pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to listen to things that attract fans from all walks of metal. Well done Iron Savior - I’m giving the new album a rating of 8 out of 10. To obtain the new Iron Savior album, go to www.iron-savior.com or www.afm-records.de.