208. Iron Savior / Dark Assault. 2001. 4/5

Concept albums have always been a tricky thing to get right. When they are done well, with a construct and story and music that brings the whole concept together, then they are brilliant albums, ones that create excitement and stand the test of time through the years. If they aren’t, they are often found on the scrapheap of the musical legacy of the band that has attempted them. Iron Savior of course was a different beast, because here was a band brought together through long term mutual friendship to put together not just a concept album, but a story that stretches over multiple albums. It was a bold concept in itself, but for band leader Piet Sielck, who had spent years behind the glass as the sound engineer and producer for many big name bands over the previous decade, the idea had grown with him during that time, and he felt he could make it work. That first album, the self-titled “Iron Savior” had included his long term friends Kai Hansen on guitar and Thomen Stauch on drums, and given its initial success Sielck expanded the band to go on tour to support it. This then led to a follow up album “Unification” which continued the story, and the wheels were in motion, the band was up and running, and Iron Savior had momentum.
Coming into the band’s third album, Stauch had gone, replaced by former Gamma Ray drummer Thomas Nack, and Joacim Kustner came in on guitar. His inclusion came on the back of Kai Hansen once again contributing to the album itself, but also confirming that he would no longer tour with the band due to his commitments to his own band Gamma Ray, and indeed this album became the last that he would appear on for Iron Savior.
The story of Iron Savior continues on here, and like with all concept albums it is not a necessity to want to know the story being told to enjoy the songs. It becomes even more difficult to try and explain what is happening when the story has already stretched over two albums. Suffice to say that the Iron Savior is machine that was built to protect the inhabitants of Atlantis long ago, but having suffered a defeat its programming has had to come to terms with this, before it returns to Earth from deep space to once again engage in the battles taking place. All of this serves as the background to Iron Savior’s third album, ominously titled “Dark Assault”.

Here is one of the things that I picked up on with this album very early on, but I don’t know if it is true. Because so many of these song titles have been used by other well known hard rock and metal bands in the past. And I’ve always wondered if that was a deliberate thing. Because if it was it is something that I’ve noticed, and if it isn’t, well it seems far too convenient. Opening track “Never Say Die”, the title track to the Black Sabbath album. “Seek and Destroy”, Metallica’s famous song. “Solar Wings” ... well, not exactly a Judas Priest song, but “Solar Angels” is and that’s very close. “Firing the Guns”, not quite AC/DC’s “Fire Your Guns” but pretty damn close. “Eye of the World” is almost there as a copy of Rainbow’s “Eyes of the World”. “After the War”, the title track to the Gary Moore album. And then, beyond that, they perform a cover of Judas Priest’s “Delivering the Goods” as the final song on the album. So, is there a connection there? Or am I just clutching at straws. To me it is a very large coincidence if there is not.
As to the album itself, that’s a different story. All of the tracks here are written by Piet Sielck, so that he can tell the next chapter of his story, but he also then engineers what the music is going to sound like. There are four songs here that have co-writers. Three involve bass guitarist Jan-Soren Eckert, and those three songs are “I’ve Been to Hell” which was released as the promotional single for the album, “Firing the Guns” and “After the War”. The other is Kai Hansen’s consistent one contribution to writing for this band, “Solar Wings”. Obviously with Kai having his main band Gamma Ray he isn’t going to contribute heavily to another project, probably even if Sielck had wanted him to. Kai also provides lead vocals for this track again, so it is significantly different ot the other tracks here. The same can be said for the Eckert contributions. “After the War”, the closing track apart from the Judas Priest cover, in fact is a very slower tempo track, one that reflectively considers the consequences of what has happened in the story prior to this, and thus the mood changes significantly. Eckert would eventually take this song with him when he moved on to Masterplan where it was reworked to more effectively reflect their own musical genre.
Now while it may sound like I am inferring that the remaining seven tracks that are composed entirely by Sielck are very similar in structure and sound... well, that is pretty much exactly what I am inferring. BUT, not in a bad way, nor in a way that each track is the same with differing lyrics espousing the next part of the story being told. What we do have here is a very solid and driving rhythm, with the drums and bass doing their job of providing the bottom layer of the album, which does occasionally fall into a similar path that can be heard at different levels of the album. Along with this, the guitars don’t break away from each other very often during the songs themselves, they play similar riffs and do not differentiate from each other apart from a solo spurt. This is something that has always led me to question exactly how much guitar Kai Hansen plays on this album. With the introduction of Joachim Kustner on guitar on this album, it meant that there were three guitarists listed alongside Kai and Piet. And the songs certainly don’t have three parts to them on these songs. There’s no doubt Kai is involved on the album, but just how much is open to question. His distinctive style can be easily picked up along the way, but not everywhere.
I should also point out that this is not to disparage what is contained here. Some people will be turned away from songs that have this syncopated rhythm throughout, which I do understand. But for those like me, who enjoy the band, enjoy Piet Sielck’s enthusiastic vocals, and are a fan of the power metal genre where it is guitar based rather than synth based, then this album comes together nicely. “Solar Wings” is a beauty, with Kai soaring on guitar and vocals, “I’ve Been to Hell”, “Dragon’s Rising” and “Back into the Light” all power along with speed and the drama of the story. The songs lock together as a result of Sielck’s vision, and as far as I am concerned it is a fun album to listen to.

Iron Savior is a band that I cottoned onto from the outset. The obvious attraction for me was that Kai Hansen was involved, whom I had had an eternal love for since I first discovered Helloween in 1987. I knew of Piet Sielck as well, so this band seemed like a good fit, and I got the first album on its release, as well as the follow up and the live EP that came after that. This was where I was truly beginning my love affair with the European power metal sound, with my preference for the twin guitar rather than keys heavy bands helping to solidify my enjoyment of Iron Savior’s output.
What hit me almost immediately when I first got “Dark Assault” on its release in 2001 was that the band’s sound had gravitated to a heavier output, something that endeared them to me even more. The songs were punchier, had a great bounce to them, and the music was solid and hard. And I really enjoyed what was produced. I had bought the album without any qualms, even though it was a period where disposable income was not what it would be later on in life. It was just an album that it felt was necessary to buy. And I didn’t regret it.
Listening to the album today, that same CD spinning around in my stereo, it has been just as enjoyable. The thing that has always impressed me with Iron Savior over the past almost 30 years is that they release albums on a consistent basis, and the quality never seems to vary a great deal. There are subtle changes in the music along the way, initially after this album when Kai left, but it has always been in a way that stays true to the bands roots, to Piet’s love of those great bands like Judas Priest and Krokus, while channelling the music he was a part of in his youth with Helloween and Blind Guardian. I still enjoy this album today, even though I still have no true following of the story it purports to tell. That has never been my concern. I like the songs, musically, vocally and lyrically, but I don’t have any great desire to put them together into the story that they create. I still love this band for the songs, not the story. That remains true to this day.
Despite Kai leaving after this album, the follow up to this actually found Iron Savior developing what would become their signature sound, devoid of Kai’s influence but with the flavours of the band members that would take the band forward from this starting platform. “Dark Assault” is that platform, and remains one of the defining pillars of Iron Savior’s catalogue.