Label: AFM Records
Release date: 20.05.2016
Production: Piet Sielck
Album length: 50.51 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Iron Savior, the long-living Hamburg power metallers who keep on going under the tireless leadership of their ultimate chieftain Piet Sielck, just don’t stop putting out albums. Two years ago came the predecessor »Rise of the Hero«, last year Sielck served up a revamped version of »Megatropolis 2.0«, which actually sounds considerably better than the original from 2007, and then there was also a live document from the band’s club show in Hamburg, titled »Live At the Final Frontier« (DVD/2CD). In short: I doubt even Piet Sielck himself remembers when he last worked so doggedly and feverishly on the band’s good name, throughout its more than enviable run.
Anyway. »Titancraft« delivers the classic picture that power metal fans have long since embraced and settled into. In other words, the new album will get under your skin and into your ears in no time. But it’s precisely this packed schedule of Sielck’s that gave birth to a few weaker ideas, and above all to a way too obvious feeling of self-repetition and thinly veiled self-cloning. That’s no surprise, though, since Iron Savior, true Germans that they are, don’t budge an inch from their musical vision and show it unconditional loyalty. A few years’ break would do Sielck a world of good, bringing more freshness to his new studio endeavors. But the unwavering musician doesn’t think that way and, in the style of a well-disciplined grafter, or workaholic, he’s already rushing to greet the fans with a new album.
»Titancraft« is a somewhat friendlier album on the ears than its predecessors. Even “cheerful” (Freedom Call even come to mind), bright and bubbling with positivity. It sticks to the tried-and-tested formula. Stylistically it now and then pulls toward old Blind Guardian, as well as old Gamma Ray. The riffs come straight out of the Judas Priest school, and the whole thing occasionally veers toward Primal Fear too. So it works in the manner of a proper power metal album, the kind that only the fossilized old German school can raise. So. If you want to meet the most genre-representative specimen of the European school of power metal, we can add »Titancraft« to that league right away. It’s played with fire, the songs are all crafted with the band’s vast experience in mind and arranged once again so that they grab you instantly and ignite on the spot. In the resulting racket, with catchy production touches that deliver a possessed, bristling attitude, the sound of the record is cranked up high. Iron Savior simply can’t screw up here.
As said. An album doggedly made by a recipe that will please the band’s longtime followers, though Iron Savior have already seen and lived through times of greater creative inspiration. Solid, but nothing special.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 7.5 / 10
Tracklist:
1. Under Siege (intro)
2. Titancraft
3. Way of the Blade
4. Sieze the Day
5. Gunsmoke
6. Beyond the Horizon
7. The Sun Won’t Rise in Hell
8. Strike Down the Tyrrany
9. Brother in Arms
10. I Surrender
11. Rebellious
Line-up:
Piet Sielck – vocals, guitar
Joachim “Piesel” Kuestner – guitar
Jan S. Eckert – bass
Thomas Nack – drums
