THIS WEEK I’M LISTENING TO...IRON SAVIOR – Awesome Anthems Of The Galaxy (Perception)

There’s two ways of looking at this. After all, this is Iron Savior, the band from Hamburg who, since the release of their self-titled debut in 1997, have been responsible for some truly fine albums. Great band, great musicians, impossible not to like... On the other hand, this is 71 minute collection of 17 pop songs from the last century, rocked up for... Well, for what? Apparently – according to guitarist / vocalist / producer / cover artist Piet Sielck in the bio – “after the huge success of the 2002 ‘Condition Red’ bonus track ‘Crazy’, which was actually used in a HBO TV show, we have been asked by fans and medias almost constantly to do a complete cover tracks album. So, two decades later, here we are!”

You can imagine the band having a great deal of fun working this album up in the studio, and it’s always enjoyable to hear a good cover version at a gig, but I’m not at all convinced by why a band of this calibre is lowering itself to churning out pretty much metal-by-numbers versions of the likes of ‘What A Feeling’, ‘Here Comes The Rain Again’, ‘All I Need Is A Miracle’ and ‘Catch Me I’m Falling’. ‘Maniac’ was done (better) by Firewind back in 2008, if I wanted to hear a Frankie Goes To Hollywood cover I’d listen to Warfare bludgeoning ‘Two Tribes’ to death (Sielck and the lads take on ‘Relax’, for those who care) and, let’s be honest, ‘Since You Been Gone’ was bad enough the first time round. The only redeeming features in my opinion are Journey’s ‘Separate Ways’ and Eurythmics’ ‘Here Comes The Rain Again’ which at least have more pedigree than the rest of the choices on offer.

Maybe I’ve got my grumpy pants on, or I take my metal too seriously – yep, I’ll take that – but I can’t really see why anyone would want to pay good money for this. If it was a limited edition bonus disc with the next great Iron Savior album I’d get where they were coming from, but, although it’s undoubtedly well played, I just don’t see the point. If this really is ‘Awesome Anthems Of The Galaxy’, beam me up, Scotty, for God’s sake...

Video clips:
‘Fame’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idqC_LJV_3s
‘Forever Young’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVTBKWy9N9A&list=RDNVTBKWy9N9A&start_radio=1

John Tucker February 2026