Iron Savior - "Firestar"
Power, Speed, and Thrash collide in this epic Sci-Fi Metal album
Firestar is the 13th full-length release from the long-running Power Metal band Iron Savior. The band has been active for well over twenty years now, with their first LP launching in 1997. This is a band I have known of for quite a while — I’ve heard tracks here and there, but never sat down to listen to an entire album. And, really, that just sucks for me, doesn’t it?
Look, we all make dumb mistakes.
Allow me to be perfectly clear here: Iron Savior isn’t nearly the best-known metal band, but they have the pedigree. Two of the founding members of Iron Savior, Piet Sielck and Kai Hansen, were also founding members of a band called Gentry, which would go on to ultimately become the powerhouse known as Helloween. Of course, Sielck was never a member of Helloween, proper, as he’d left by that point. Kai Hansen, on the other hand, was involved with the band through the first three albums, then returned to the band in 2017; in the interim, he founded both Iron Savior and Gamma Ray. And both Sielck and Hansen have worked with another German Power Metal juggernaut: Blind Guardian, one of my all-time favorite bands.
In fact, the third co-founder of Iron Savior is Thomen Stauch, who was Blind Guardian’s drummer from its conception all the way through 2005. Neither Stauch, nor Hansen are still with the band, but Sielck still leads it. And the bassist that the founding trio picked up to complete their roster in 1997, Jan-Sören Eckert, is still with the band, as well (though he also took an eight-year hiatus starting around 2003).
All of this is to say that Iron Savior is a band steeped in that old-school, 80s and 90s Power Metal sound. They also reek of classic Heavy Metal and make strong use of Thrash and Speed elements throughout Firestar — I will happily slap this album with the label of the best Thrash album I’ve heard in a while, despite that Thrash isn’t even remotely meant to be the central sound at play.1
The album launches with a brief, minute-long instrumental intro track, then dives headlong into “Curse of the Machinery”, which is an upbeat, driving Power and Speed track that doesn’t let up for even a moment. It’s an excellent start to the album, setting the tone for the next 44 minutes of playtime,2 which is, overall, an intense-but-strongly-melodic affair.
By that, I mean that the intensity isn’t the only goal. Some metal bands (and genres) only really go for LOUD and/or FAST, but forget to pay attention to the actual song structure. Iron Savior doesn’t allow that to fall by the wayside.
Despite that he’s in his late 50s, Sielck keeps the energy up in both the guitars and vocals, showing that he isn’t ready to slow down yet (and probably never will be).
Title track “Firestar” is one of the best exemplars of that classic Euro-Power sound; “Through the Fires of Hell” effectively utilizes the keyboard as a subtle harmonic enhancement through the chorus; “Mask, Cloak, and Sword” is a goddamn Heavy/Speed ode to fucking ZORRO; and “Across the Wastelands” features a low, chuggy guitar intro reminiscent of some 80s bands. Unfortunately, for that last song, the intro doesn’t translate into that guitar line remaining as dominant as it should, but it’s still a solid track.
Those four songs really form the strongest arc within the album, though “Curse of the Machinery” might be the best single track. Closer “Together as One” is also exceptional.
The whole album is a solid ride. It might not quite hold up against any of Blind Guardian’s Golden Age albums, but it’s strongly reminiscent of that era with the benefits of modern mastering and mixing behind it. I definitely recommend this one for any metalheads out there with a weakness for Power, Speed, Thrash, or classic Heavy.
Rating: Teal Blue
This is more a dig at the current state of Thrash than anything else.
Including the minute-long intro, Firestar consists of 11 tracks spanning fifty minutes.