Power metal as you know it will never be the same! Forget everything you know about power metal and start over making Iron Savior’s ‘Megatropolis’ the album upon which the newly redefined genre is based. Or not. I mean, remember everything you know about power metal? Well, that’s exactly what Iron Saviour’s ‘Megatropolis’ sounds like. Power metal as you know it will be exactly the same.

Iron Savior started as a band in 1996 and made a big impact in the German power metal scene with their debut-album. Since then they grew to be one of the biggest power metal bands of the German scene with their second and third record. In 2002 their main man Kai Hansen left Iron Savior. Piet Sielck took over and with him at the helm (the mic) the band made their fourth and fifth album, CD’s that were generally appreciated as well.
‘Megatropolis’ starts off with fierce, heavy riffs. Quite nicely done. They don’t really hit as hard as they could because of the light production (too much treble or something), but still, some of those riffs are quite interesting. Between them though, predictable parts you hear on nearly every power metal record.
The vocals of Mister Piet Sielck are adequate. He sounds as power metal vocalists sound. Lyrically Iron Savior is always on about some futuristic shit. Unofficial source Wikipedia says: “Most of their songs narrate an elaborate story about a self-aware space vessel (the "Iron Savior") related to the lost continent of Atlantis. Recently, themes include explorations of one`s perception of reality and the spirit of freedom.” Right. Okay. I first noticed this (paying attention to power metal lyrics is in general a bad idea) when song five ‘Cybernatic Queen’ -I know…- came around. At some passage Piet is on about ‘the eyes of the cyborg’. Good god! It was really somewhat embarrassing, and I got one severe, acute goosebump on my right shoulder blade.

Then again, futuristic nonsense is more original than lyrics about swords, warriors and battles.

The awful
The aforementioned song five is godawful, like most slow heavy/power metal songs. The song that follows that one leans heavily on pal mute guitar action (as is the case more often) and in this case even more dreadful lyrics and some eighties type sounds. ‘Get on your mighty steed and blablabla’. Sure enough, instrumentally the band is very competent, but it’s all a bit tedious and predictable. Song seven, ‘Tale From Down Below’, even sounds a lot like a rock song, song eight has parts in it where Sielck decides to sing in his highest possible voice, which really isn’t a good idea, musically. Also, my stomach is not appreciative. The last song… Oh well, you can guess: standard power metal fare.

They really do seem to go somewhere with this album when you hear the first three songs, especially with the song ‘Flesh’, which is also the most aggressive song on here. However, after the first third things gradually worsen, until the album closer, which on second thought is actually alright, but nothing particularly special. ‘Megatropolis’ is an album not worth much. Most songs aren’t very interesting at all and the light production makes it that you get a slight headache after about fifteen minutes. All in all: instrumentally they are good, but very, very predictable, the vocals are okay, but the lyrics are pretty bad and the production is headache inducing. Three point five songs out of the nine are worth your money, so maybe you can convince the people at the CD-store to let you buy it for forty percent of the price, otherwise: keep your money.