Customer Reviews

Megatropolis

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those of you unfamiliar with Iron Savior, they play a unique brand of powermetal with classic metal tendencies, more Judas Priest than Helloween. Their music tends to be mid-to-fast paced, although they tend to have a few slower tunes per album, and, as opposed to many other powermetal bands, their real focus is on the vocals and songwriting rather than musicianship. This is not to say that Iron Savior are musical slouches. On the contrary, they're all extremely talented professionals. It's just that they're not as "out there" from a chops perspective as say...Dragonforce. Their vocalist, Piet Sielck has a powerful gruff-yet-melodic voice akin to Blind Guardian's Hansi Kursch. As stated in an earlier review, Iron Savior's albums have historically been a series of loosely-connected sci-fi based concept albums but, to be honest, I haven't really followed the story.

Megatropolis is in the same mold as the rest of their back catalogue and there aren't too many surprises here but that's one of the things that makes Iron Savior one of my favorite bands - Consistency. They have released great albums since their self-titled debut back in 1997 and Megatropolis is certainly no exception. It kicks off with "Running Riot", a speedy butt-kicker with an curiously timed opening riff and a fantastic sing-along chorus. Other highlights include "The Omega Man", the album's #2 track and another burner which begs to be played live; "Megatropolis", yet another faster song and my (current) favorite on the album; and the excellent "Farewell and Goodbye", which has "set closer" written all over it. As for clunkers, well...there aren't any. My only, albeit small, complaint with Megatropolis is the strangely mixed drum sound. It's only evident in a couple of places throughout the album and although it never once detracted from my enjoyment of the album it is occasionally distracting.

All in all, Megatropolis a great album by an outstanding band and I recommend it to any fan of powermetal. For those of you who are already Iron Savior fans, it holds up well against anything in their back catalogue.

Glad to know this band hasn't lost their imagination for futuristic fantasy. Once again not going to reveal the storyline on this CD. I wasn't sure about picking this one up since the "Battering Ram" didn't do it for me. if you lost interest in Iron Savior, get this CD, it's another futureistic concept album that we've come to enjoy from them. Bravo on going back to your original idea.

2007's Megatropolis is the sixth full-length album from German power metal crew Iron Savior. This long-running, sci-fi obsessed band is one of the most consistent, yet consistently overlooked, bands in the German power metal scene. Since the mid `90s they've released a series of high-quality albums, and Megatropolis is no exception.

The band is still on a sci-fi kick with Megatropolis, but the album seems to step away from the giant spaceship theme of previous Iron Savior albums in favor of a futuristic Blade Runner-style concept. Musically, Megatropolis isn't too far removed from previous Iron Savior offerings. It's a fast-paced, hard-hitting power metal album that focuses a bit more on heaviness than say Helloween or Gamma Ray. You're definitely going to bang your head to this one. Standout tracks are "The Omega Men" and "A Tale from Down Below," but the whole album is quite solid and flows together really well.

It may stick close to the Iron Savior "type," but Megatropolis is still a totally enjoyable power metal album that shouldn't disappoint the band's fans. It's also a pretty good starting point for new fans, as it gives a great overview of Iron Savior's brand of power metal and doesn't require any familiarity with earlier albums' storylines. If you're a fan of the harder-hitting power metal bands like Brainstorm, Symphorce, Sabaton and Powerwolf, you'll definitely want to check out Iron Savior.

Sigh, since Condition Red, it seems more and more difficult for Iron Savior to produce a full, quality album.

First off, I'll start by saying that album isn't bad, but it's definately nothing to write home about either. I'm not going to stand a preach about how songs should be hooky and all sing along, but let's face it...Titans of our time is probably one of their best and hookiest songs ever.

Nothing on this album, with maybe the exception of Cybernatic Queen really leaps out at me. A good majority of the songs, I find are rehashed and boring. Personally, back to the drawing board guys.

Awesome! If you like your music on the heavy side this is for you. Not thrash - prog metal.

This release by the german band is quite good, but you will miss the crunching power of it's predecesors. It no longer follows the overall story of the gigant space station/weapon but it stays in the sci-fi, futuristic line. a decent album non the less. If you like the previous album Battering Ram you will probably enjoy this one too.