Iron Savior - Megatropolis

Published May 27 2007

*=Staff's pick	Running Riot* The Omega Men Flesh Megatropolis* Cybernatic Queen Cyber Hero A Tale From Down Below Still I Believe Farewell And Good Bye

Genre	Heavy Metal	Piet Sielck	Vocals
Tracks	9	Piet Sielck	Guitar
Runningtime	46 Min.	Joachim Küstner	Guitar
Label	Dockyard1	Yenz Leonhardt	Bass
Release	04 June 2007	Thomas Nack	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	Savage Circus, Persuader

Iron Savior. One of my absolute favourite bands of all time and I have for a long time now anticipated a new and fresh album from them. A relatively short but convincing career so far has resulted in masterpieces like Unification (1999), Dark Assault (2001) and Condition Red (2002). I don't know if it is because of Piet Sielck's involvement in his record label Dockyard1, his producing jobs elsewhere, his role in Savage Circus, or just a temporary lack of inspiration in general but whatever the reason, it has put its mark on the quality of the songs on this new album.

There is not much left of what have been Iron Savior's trademark since day one: Melodic, brilliant guitar riffs and magnificent and breathtaking refrains, especially the latter. I am sad to say that not one single refrain - I repeat: not one single refrain - on this album manage to catch my interest, and that is so far unprecedented in Iron Savior's discography (Megatropolis and Farewell And Good Bye come somewhat close but it still far from glory days). The refrain in Cyber Hero is even the worst they have done and is close to horrible. The rest of the material is more or less groovy midtempo, just a little bit slower than previous efforts. It is built more on groove than speed this time.

A handful of good riffs surface here and there (Megatropolis, Cyber Hero), but for the major part of it, it is an orgy in pretty weak and edgeless riffs which seem to have been picked up from the trashcan of the last album's sessions. Many of them feel recycled or borrowed, as I can trace a couple of them to Gamma Ray, and a handful more back to Iron Savior's own albums, especially Unification and Condition Red. Only one song is close to reach all the way and that is the title track Megatropolis but there is something missing even there.

As unfortunate as it might be, this is a dull and gray album, and by far the least good in their discography. It feels like an album they just "had to" get out because it has been some time now since the last one. This will be a dust collector in the shelf and only at best be played once a year out of curiosity and now I turn my attention to the upcoming Savage Circus album instead.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	6	7	7	4

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - Tommy