Alright, it's been a while since Iron Savior actually made my world move (or should I say nudge :) ) in any sort of direction. I was less than impressed with Battering Ram, and even less interested in Megatropolis (artwork excluded). The band was going backwards since Condition Red, their ABSOLUTE best album to date, followed closely with Dark Assault (and Unification). Amongst the changes for this new album, a change in lineup, with bassist Jan S. Eckert rejoining the ranks and reuniting the godly Condition Red lineup, as well as a change in label, Iron Savior now sails under the AFM flag (a good match imho seeing that AFM is slowly but surely reuniting the best power metal acts to be found nowadays under one roof).

So at first it was with a "meh" attitude that I started listening to The Landing. You know what's good about expectation, or herein the lack of such ? It's that if you don't have any, you might actually be surprised in a good way. And that's what happened with The Landing. I had no real expectation for this album, I thought it would probably be another slab of oversimplified Power Metal soon to be forgotten forever. I'm glad my expectation have been shattered though, cause it seems Piet and the gang are back with a vengeance this time and the band has returned to their roots. So The Landing delivers its fair share of epic melodies, great choruses, nice choirs like we want (more like expect actually) from Iron Savior, and it's been 10 years since I've actually been impressed or even interested in a band that was once amongst my favorites ones in the genre. Everything down to the artwork is a bulls eye on The Landing. It might miss a couple of more godly tracks to reach the level of Condition Red, but The Landing is the next best thing. Great hooks, fast and furious riffing, awesome guitar melodies and killer songs one after the other, now we are talking, could this be a true Iron Savior album ? That it is my friends, that it is... The icing on the cake being the masterful song Heavy Metal Never Dies, an hymn to reminds the fan that it will, indeed, never die, and this song is a great argument for that bold statement (but let's face it, Metal is Forever :), to quote another Teutonic band). Heavy Metal Never Dies is squarish and accessible (almost radio friendly actually or even Lordi's Hard Rock Hallelujah Eurovision worthy :) ), it's straightforward but it hits all the right notes, and the first time I heard it, it gave me tingles all over. A headbanger's classic for sure, and the perfect way for the band to end a live concert after the encore. From Starlight, March of Doom, to Hall of Heroes or Faster Than All, the album is filled with killer tracks, and while some are better than others, none really feels like a filler, and that's a first for the band in the last decade. So thumbs up for that.

To conclude I will say that this album easily found its place on my album of the year list (since the year is past and to avoid confusion I award it the AotM award, but its place is well deserved in my top 15 albums of 2011), and while it may not be the band's strongest delivering to date, it's definitely one of the band's highlights release and a pure return to form. If you missed Iron Savior for almost 10 years like I did, and want to listen to something closer to Condition Red than Megatropolis, then you will want to give this album a spin (or 20). Now let's hope two things for the future of Iron Savior. 1) More timely releases (an album every two years would be nice) and 2) Stay true to your roots, experimentation is all good and fun, but fans know what they want, and I can bet that like me they want more of this !