Review: Iron Savior – Firestar

AFM Records (October 6^th 2023)

Reviewer: Jason Hopper

I stumbled across Iron Savior and their album ‘The Landing’ while checking out bands online some ten years ago. That seminal album has some incredible songs on it and remains their best-selling album to date. I purchased that album as well as several from their back catalog. A year later, ‘Rise of the Hero’ was released. I enjoyed it but not as much as its predecessor. The following album ‘Titancraft’ did little to convince me to buy the album based off the singles released and I pivoted away from the band. Admittedly, power metal bands fall into too many familiar tropes for me lyrically and rhythmically, with few bands holding my attention over the length of their careers.

With the release of Iron Savior’s 14^th album ‘Firestar’, I decided to give the band another listen hoping for something akin to their earlier efforts… and I’m glad I did. This release contains some truly great melodies, with the band changing up their speed metal bashers with the type of Judas Priest-inspired riffing that is my preferred type of metal to listen to regularly.

The album opens with what I am guessing is in typical fashion for the band, a full-on petal to the metal double bass thrasher.  ‘Curse of the Machinery’ has a great melody line but that all too familiar power metal rhythm section. The kind with the double bass kicking as fast as humanly possible. We’ve all heard this type of rhythm from many bands in the genre and it is all just a bit repetitive.  That said, at the 3:55 mark, the song changes the melody and rhythm to a more traditional metal sound briefly, breaking up the monotony. It’s my favorite part of the track. If they had thrown that in earlier and sporadically spread around, this would have been one of the band’s best tunes.

From there, the band does a great job of offering an even mix of power metal rhythms and traditional heavy metal songs. I prefer my power metal with limited use of the double bass and found those songs to be stronger. Tracks like ‘In The Realm of Heavy Metal’, ‘Demise of the Tyrant’, ‘Through the Fires of Hell’ (with a riff straight off Alex Rudi Pell’s debut album), and ‘Across the Wastelands’ are all distinct and heavy, with guitarist Joachim “Piesel” Küstner and lead singer/guitarist Piet Sielck formulating some incredibly melodious constructs.

Other tracks that rely on speed exclusively did not fare as well for me. The title track, ‘Mask, Cloak, and Sword’, and ‘Rising from Ashes’ sound like tracks I’ve heard from countless bands before.  After playing the album several times, I still had trouble recalling what these songs sounded like when returning to them the next day as they don’t stand out in any way that makes them distinctive.

Special recognition has to go to final track ‘Together As One’, my favorite song on the album and one of the best songs I’ve heard from the band. Here the band melds together a fast power metal rhythm with a chorus consisting of soaring lyrics that float over the main melody. If melodic power metal were to be defined, it would be defined by this song.

A quick mention of the production of the album. In comparison to their older releases, this album sounds like a million bucks. The thinness of their older releases has been replaced with a meatiness suited to their sound. Overall, I dug seven of the ten tracks so that makes the album a winner for me. I will certainly be buying it and I would encourage all metal fans who are wary of power metal bands sounding stale to give this album a listen. Lots of variety in the riffage made this album a pleasure to review.

Tracklist:

1. The Titan (Intro)
2. Curse of the Machinery
3. In the Realm of Heavy Metal
4. Demise of the Tyrant
5. Firestar
6. Through the Fires of Hell
7. Mask, Cloak, and Sword
8. Across the Wastelands
9. Rising from Ashes
10. Nothing is Forever
11. Together as One