adg211288
There are artists out there who prove time and time again that they are a consistent force within their genre that can always be replied upon to deliver a decent album every few years. For the German power metal scene one such band is Iron Savior. Active since 1996, they had an early claim to fame by having Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray, ex-Helloween) as a member but they were always more the band of frontman Piet Sielck and since Kai Hansen's exit after third album Dark Assault (2001) have still been going strong. Though it's strong in such a way that they never deliver a weak album, not because they're churning out gems each and every time. There have been a few excellent Iron Savior albums over the years, most recently The Landing (2011), which I'd say is actually their best overall, but never one where I've wanted to review them with a top tier mark. Titancraft (2016) is their ninth album.
Though Titancraft starts quite strong once its intro Under Siege is out of the way with the double header of its title track and Way of the Blade, it quickly becomes apparent that once again we're dealing with a business as usual Iron Savior release. Which is to say it's got their signature guitar driven power metal sound and excellent vocals from Piet Sielck, a few brilliant tracks that would fit onto a hypothetical best of Iron Savior compilation which would be the aforementioned duo along with Strike Down the Tyranny, some more heavy metal based material such as Gunsmoke to give the album's pace a little variety and overall every song is very good, but they don't make too much impact on me. That's because that's exactly what Iron Savior do and can be replied upon for. I think that would explain why it's taken me so long to really delve into this album: the band have become predictable, and so while it's every bit of strong as I expected it to be, Titancraft just isn't an exciting release.
I think that I do prefer Titancraft by a small margin to their previous release Rise of the Hero (2014), but we're talking a miniscule difference. This, like any other Iron Savior album with perhaps the sole exception of the original Megatropolis (2007) (I haven't heard the partially rerecorded 2015 2.0 release of it), would serve as a decent starting point for anyone looking to discover this band, but once you've heard a few releases from them, it all gets a bit samey. I'll score the album as the material deserves, but it would be so nice to hear Iron Savior really knock it out of the park one day, either by delivering an album where every song is an killer as the usual few highlights, or by doing something unexpected for once.