Iron Savior – The Landing (2012)

Returning from a four year absence, today we have Iron Savior and their outstanding release “The Landing”. In this release the band makes a triumphant return with 11 tracks of pure Power Metal that will have you chanting with every chorus section and headbanging to the catchy guitars. It is highly evident that only bands like Iron Savior know exactly what to do (and how to do it) in order to deliver a timeless sound that everybody will enjoy from beginning to end.

After the epic momentum builder “Descending”, the band fully explodes into Power Metal mode with “The Savior”. In this song the guitars are super catchy and powerful, but the timeless vocals of Piet Sielck take the spotlight away. The vocal melodies are very well crafted thanks to great lead and backing vocals, a staple of the genre, and something that Iron Savior excels at. While sounding like a million bucks, this song (and the whole release) is very down to basics in the sense of instrumentation but by no means sounds limited.

With the typical Power Metal catchiness, “Starlight” and “March of Doom” delivers great melodic sections and excellent solos. The band is clearly not trying to re-invent the genre, but they do a kick-ass job when it comes to crafting and executing top not quality tunes. The best song of this release, and by far the best Power Metal track we’ve heard in 2012 has to be “Heavy Metal Never Dies”. With a somewhat cheesy name, this song should be put in every Heavy Metal compilation ever due to its excellent music and even catchier lyrics.

The album’s production is crystal clear and songs like “Moment in Time”, “Hall of the Heores” and “R.U. Ready” deliver very clear and powerful guitars. The vocals are perfectly mixed and the solos are nicely highlighted. The drumming is very compact and the bass guitar pounds away since the first minute. It is very interesting how almost any band has access to tons of studio magic ticks but never end up sounding like this (and Iron Savior in fact, does not require any magic as you can hear in their sound). “Faster than All” is another typical Power Metal anthem and delivers very catchy melodic sections and crazy guitar wizardry, making our second favorite track of this release.

If you are a Power Metal fan and never heard of Iron Savior… you have been living under a rock for the last 15 years. This band is extremely talented and they show it by crafting excellent tracks, not by playing 2 million notes per second and showing off technical skills. “The Landing” is an album filled with super catchy songs that will surely please all fans of the genre, so stop reading and get this excellent release.

Release: January 17th, 2012

Country: Germany