Yesterday marked the release of a sorta-new album from Iron Savior, titled Reforged — Machine World. I say “sorta-new” because, well… while it exists today and did not exist two days ago, it’s comprised entirely of material that has existed for years. For the third time in the last decade-or-so, the German power metal mainstays have re-recorded — sorry, reforged — large chunks of their early catalogue and repackaged them for a new quarter-century. And once you set aside the existential question of necessity, it’s… fine?
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Machine World puts a new coat of paint on a selection of songs from 1999’s Unification through 2004’s Battering Ram. (There’s also a cover of Judas Priest’s 1977 classic, “Starbreaker,” because sometimes after an entire album of covering yourself it’s fun to change things up and cover someone else.) And in just about every case*, the reforging efforts add heft and presence to recordings that, to be fair, had started sounding a bit tinny.
* the exception, of course, is “Starbreaker,” because Sin After Sin — and classic Priest in general — is forever unfuckwithable
The band’s new-ish rhythm section — Patricks Opitz (bass) and Klose (drums) — come through thick-as-a-brick, and work in tandem with guitarist Joachim Küstner to create absolute thunderstorms tracks like “Walls of Fire” or “Wings of Deliverance.” On top of it all, there’s vocalist Piet Sielck, who — some twenty-plus years on, and now in his early 60s — spends the entire ride howling as ferociously as ever. In short, you could do far, far worse than Reforged – Machine World at this kind of thing.
But thinking about it beyond simply the outcome… how necessary really was this kind of thing in the first place? If Sielck wanted the band’s newer members to show off their chops and feel welcome, I could see doing one of these Reforged collections. But three? That seems to suggest that the original recordings aren’t cutting it for him anymore. Which, as we said earlier, is fine! Not wrong, either! But if that’s the case, why not just re-record the actual albums — “(Piet’s Version)”, anyone? — instead of mish-mashing them together into these compilations?
In the end, Reforged — Machine World may not make sense, but it doesn’t make the world a worse place, either. It’s an entirely decent and fun-enough listen from a band we’re happy is still out there doing the thing.
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And in Iron Savior’s defense, “may not make sense” is kind of the natural state of discography re-recording projects like these. (And of most movie or video game remakes, to be fair.) Do the originals not still exist? Don’t they give you a better idea of an artist’s history and development in context than late-career re-dos at the peak of one’s powers?
Whatever the case, Iron Savior’s far from the only metal band to have been bitten by this bug. (And they won’t be the last, either! Pallbearer’s just announced an, uh… eleventh anniversary “reconstruction” of 2014’s Foundations of Burden, for some reason!) Regardless, here are a few others that are definitely some of the re-recording projects that have ever been made:
Anthrax — The Greater of Two Evils
Listen, I enjoy me some John Bush ‘thrax. Probably more than I should!
But, context is important here: having him cover all these early classics — and positioning his era as “the greater of two evils” — then, uh… dismissing him from the band not even a year later? That was a choice.
In Flames — Clayman 2020
I guess the one nice thing I can say about this one is that it’s actually just an EP’s worth of re-recordings and not the full album. Even so, original Clayman still sounds great! Anders’ clean voice is demonstrably weaker on these songs now than it was in 2000! Who needed this? Who even asked for it? (The label, probably.)
Exodus — Let There Be Blood
I’ve got a soft spot for Rob Dukes, because — somehow — Shovel Headed Kill Machine was the first Exodus album I ever listened to, back in the day. His gruff, seething vocals give the band something different than either Baloff or Zetro could. What they don’t do, however, is justify this re-recording of 1985’s classic Bonded by Blood, which is perfectly fine the way it is.
Pestilence — Levels of Perception
Pestilence, at this point, is basically just “Patrick Mameli and some guys.” Which guys? Doesn’t matter; they’ll be gone before the next album anyway. Which, I guess, partially explains this 2024 re-recordings comp; whether the songs were from 1989’s Consuming Impulse or 2021’s Exitivm, there’s a different group of “some guys” that needed to put their stamp on these tunes! (But did we really need the horrid production and A.I. cover art controversy, too, Pat?)
Twisted Sister — Still Hungry
In 2004, the New York hard rockers re-did their classic, 1984 album, Stay Hungry, because the original sounded “too glossy.” Setting aside that being an objectively hilarious complaint about literally a glam metal album… removing said gloss just makes them sound like any old Long Island bar band. So again, the question becomes: did anyone really need this?
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Anyway, that’ll do it! Many thanks to Piet and Iron Savior for inspiring this not-at-all-necessary, but amusing-nonetheless content exercise!
Keep it heavy,
—Dan
Reforged — Machine World is available now via Perception / Reigning Phoenix Music. For more information on Iron Savior, visit the band’s Facebook page.