IRON SAVIOR — Rise Of The Hero (review)

IRON SAVIOR — Rise Of The Hero album cover

Album · 2014 · Power Metal

4/5 · 2014-03-18
adg211288

Rise of the Hero (2014) is the eighth full-length album by German power metal act Iron Savior. As per usual the album was produced by the band's own Piet Sielck and recorded in his Powerhouse Studio in Hamburg, Germany. The album includes an unusual cover song choice in Mando Diao's Dance With Somebody. Versions with bonus tracks are also available, those tracks being re-recorded versions of the older Iron Savior songs I've Been to Hell (from Dark Assault (2001)) and Mind Over Matter (from Unification (1999)).

Iron Savior are easily one of the most consistent bands going, however in my experience there's never actually been an album from them that I'd be comfortable calling a top tier release. There have been some times whenever I've been very close to it, especially with The Landing (2011) and Unification, but the band has never quite managed to step into masterpiece territory for me. They've generally delivered great to exceptional power metal albums though since their debut Iron Savior (1997) with the one minor blip being Megatropolis (2007) which was still good but not exactly remarkable to my ears (one should bear in mind with that opinion though that Megatropolis is an album I've only heard the once). Rise of the Hero isn't the album to buck the trend, which I guess can be seen as both a positive and a negative thing. Positive, because once again Iron Savior has delivered a solid album that doesn't let their discography down. Negative, because they still haven't made that well overdue top tier classic and it also doesn't come anywhere near as close as its predecessor The Landing did.

Iron Savior does of course still know how to write some really belting power metal tracks that are catchy without coming over as overly cheesy, although the band has managed to be lyrically very cheesy in the past, particularly when they write a song about metal itself, which they've done yet again on Rise of the Hero in the form of the closing Fistraiser. A bit of cheese in a power metal album isn't wrong though since this is meant to be fun music, and Iron Savior excel at that with some choice cuts this time around being Last Hero, Burning Heart and From Far Beyond Time. What drags the album down a bit though is a song like Dragon King which is more of a heavy metal track and not up to Iron Savior's usual standards. The Dance With Somebody cover is obviously a bit different to their original songs but it works well enough although is more indication that the first half of Rise of the Hero is significantly stronger than the second.

Rise of the Hero is something of a step down for Iron Savior after the career best that was The Landing, but I can't say the album is a disappointment. At the end of the day Iron Savior continue to do what they do best here and for me that's perfectly fine. 4 Stars.

82/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/iron-savior-rise-of-the-hero-t3375.html)