Label: AFM Records
Release date: 8/26/2022
Production: Piet Sielck
Compilation length: 123.26 min
Genre: Power Metal
Rating: 9/10
Iron Savior hardly need an introduction for the true-blue power metal fan. They’re led by the great chieftain Piet Sielck, who’s pretty much as old as heavy metal itself. Well, actually, he’s even older. What I mean is, Piet has always been there. Right where what we might call the new wave of German metal was taking shape, with early Accept more or less understood as early Judas Priest on their road to transformation, only a much shorter road than, say, Priest’s.
Let me ‘cut it short.’ Piet Sielck decided relatively late to start his own band. Even a bit too late. It was born in the second half of the nineties, when the metal scene turned downright hostile to melodic elements for a while, and especially to clean, authoritative vocals. Sielck, who had previously produced key Blind Guardian albums, put out Iron Savior’s debut only in 1997, but others followed fast. And what albums! Iron Savior are the very definition of power metal brilliance, the kind only the true school of German Teutonic metal can serve up. Sadly, all these albums, one after another, strangely enough, went overlooked on the scene. Funny enough, it’s only recently, more than two decades after the band’s formation, that Iron Savior managed to break that curse. The 2019 album “Kill Or Get Killed” (RockLine review) landed them at No. 54, and the latest one, their thirteenth overall, “Skycrest” from 2020, at No. 95.
Anyway, here we have the second compilation, “Reforged – Ironbound”, from a band that can truly boast a gorgeous discography, no matter how visible Iron Savior have become on the international scene over time. Unlike on the first compilation, “Reforged – Riding On Fire” (2017, RockLine review), this time Kai Hansen joined the band in the studio. He’s been friends with Sielck since the days Helloween were being formed, if not earlier. Together, they’ve weathered every flood of biblical proportions out there. Kai played on the first Iron Savior album and kept showing up on later albums as a special guest, so inviting him was a perfectly logical move. And there’s more. Not only does Kai play and sing all the original parts, just like back when he was officially ‘on the clock’ with Iron Savior, but Sielck also brought in Kai’s 23-year-old son Tim Hansen, guitarist of the band Induction, who contributed a guitar solo to this compilation. Tim Kanoa Hansen had barely been born when Iron Savior released their second studio album, “Unification”.
This batch of re-recorded classics stirs up feelings similar to the first volume, which is no surprise at all. Once again it focuses on material from the first five albums, released between 1997 and 2004, with the spotlight pointed mainly at tracks from “The Dark Assault” (2001) and “Unification” (1999), since Sielck and company had mostly used up the material from the remaining albums, “Iron Savior” (1997), “Condition Red” (2002) and “Battering Ram” (2004), on the first “Reforged” compilation.
Nothing can go wrong in the studio. Not only does the high quality of the band’s newest studio albums show that attitude, with the current “Skycrest” (2020, RockLine review) being no exception, but the material gathered on this new compilation, from the band’s classic era, has by now reached cult status in the hearts of their followers, as a set of great, evergreen power metal favorites. To stretch the point further, it has grown into a sort of ‘untouchable myth’. The tracks on this new, second part of the two “Reforged” compilations aren’t shuffled around, but follow the order of the release years of the first five studio albums. Tacked onto the end of the compilation are four cover versions that originally appeared as B-sides of released singles.
Considering that the first four albums are physically hard to get hold of these days, if at all, and it’s unknown what happened with the sale of the rights held by their former label Noise Records, “Reforged – Ironbound” is also a hugely welcome compilation. It gives power metal fans the band’s classic material, once again available in physical form (2CD, 2LP).
The performance and the selection are thus the epitome of well-oiled brilliance and the hallmark of Sielck’s and his crew’s great perfectionism, an expected constant from such an experienced musician, producer and, last but not least, musical visionary. The compilation “Reforged – Ironbound” is a new benchmark of that and a top-notch power metal carousel through the band’s golden era, one that fans of true European power metal simply have to have in their record collection.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
CD1.:
1. Children Of The Wasteland
2. Protect The Law
3. Starborn
4. Deadly Sleep
5. Forces Of Rage
6. Brothers (Of The Past)
7. The Battle
8. Unchained
9. Seek And Destroy
10. Solar Wings
11. Made Of Metal
12. Predators
13. Firing The Guns
14. Back Into The Light
CD2.:
1. Ironbound
2. Paradise
3. Thunderbird
4. Tyranny Of Steel
5. Riding Free
6. Starchaser
7. Living On A Fault Line (bonus)
8. Crazy (bonus)
9. Sweet Dreams (bonus)
10. Crazy Radio Edit (bonus)
Line-up:
Piet Sielck – vocals, guitar
Joachim “Piesel” Küstner – guitar
Jan-Sören Eckert – bass
Patrick Klose – drums
Guest musicians:
Kai Hansen – vocals, guitar
Tim Kanoa Hansen – guitar
