942. Iron Savior / The Landing. 2011. 3.5/5

It's been a good trip, this Iron Savior thing. When I first discovered them with their first album closing in on 20 years ago, I really thought it was going to be a short lived side project for Piet Sielck and Kai Hansen, and then the music world would return to normal. Kai eventually couldn't find time to commit any longer, but the band has remained, and has continued to put out quality power metal albums that have been solidly excellent through that time. The latest in that production line is The Landing.

Changes are afoot, though they don't start with this album. It is still a quite noticeable shift in tempo with this album from earlier releases. In many ways it is happening across the board with bands of this ilk, that as they age and mature, the music just isn't as fast and frantic as it was in the beginning. What we have here there is less a power metal album than an old fashioned heavy metal album. Several of the songs have settled back into a mid paced groove, from which they don't get out of for the entire song. This is not meant to be criticism per se, but more an admission that even Iron Savior, whom I had believed were one of the torchbearers of the fast and furious power metal posse, were even beginning to re-evaluate their music. And again let me state that there is not a drop in quality, but only in speed intensity, thus requiring this album to be approached in a different way than just looking for the fast head banging style of yore.
The early judging of this change comes in the first two songs. The opening of "Descending" moves into "The Savior", a mid-tempo opening track that enforces a chanting chorus that is accompanied by a solid drum backing and rigid back track. For many other bands this would probably suffice, and suffice well. The change is significant as we plunge into "Starlight" which burst out of the speakers at high speed and volume, the double kick drums careering along with the dual guitar riffing, and Piet's vocals soaring over the top. This is the kind of song that Iron Savior has specialised in, and is pretty much what I am looking for when I put on an Iron Savior album. Great stuff. This is where the two entities collide, and the choice between the styles is most stark. "March of Doom" continues in this vein, a rollicking journey with great guitars and fabulous drum work. This is then followed by the anthemic "Heavy Metal Never Dies" which falls back into the simplified drums and guitars that were found in the opening track. Yes, this is more uniquely heavy metal, and is as enjoyable as any other song from this band. It's just a change from the band's usual modus operandi.
The middle of the album mixes these two styles in competing formats. While songs such as "Moment in Time" are in that historical Iron Savior format of speed and soaring, you have the more traditional heavy mid-tempo songs like "Hall of the Heroes" also within the framework. For the most part, they are ordered such that the transition between the two style of metal songs fit together in an enjoyable atmosphere. "R.U. Ready" acts as a history to metal, lyrically incorporating bands and album names within the lyrics for an enjoyable walk down memory lane, before "Faster Than All" keeps the ball rolling.
Some don't work for me at all. The melancholic and morbid wailings of "Before the Pain" are a long way from what I am looking for in an Iron Savior song. the ability to transcend genres, to push your music to the limits, to prove that you are not a one trick pony when it comes to your music - yeah, I can see why bands must play with the devil and give this kind of stuff a go. Some will enjoy songs like this, but for me, although I don't think this can be labelled a ballad of any description, all this does is kills the momentum of the album, and invites the use of the skip function. At the very least, the following song "No Guts No Glory" picks the flotsam off the floor and gives a stronger performance in which to close the album out, without the speed and double kick drums that one would like to hear to complete the disc, but still an attempt to give an anthemic conclusion to the album.

The positive of this album for me is that I can still put this on at any time, and listen to it without any reservations. It's different when you sit down and listen to an album to critically review it, as I have done here again over the past couple of days. That's when you must truly pull it apart and look for the way you really feel deep down about the structure of the album, and each track involved. Once that has been done, the real judging of an album comes down to whether or not you still like it whenever you happen to put it on. The answer here is still a categorical "yes".

Rating:  "1967, a thunder in the night, a blazing star played his guitar and metal did ignite"  3.5/5