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When I first got into Iron Savior nearly 20 years ago, their albums were instantly likeable and a safe blind purchase if you were into power metal. I kind of lost interest starting with Megatropolis, which I could barely—if at all—stand. The following albums weren't instant "likes" either and Kill or Get Killed gave me the same feeling on the first few listens. This time, however, I stuck with it and gave it a few more attentive listens over the course of a few days and found that hidden in there was a lot of what made Iron Savior so much fun in their early years. I still don't know why it didn't jump right at me.

Now, that so-called hidden stuff isn't as great as their old material, but the elements are there for the most part. Piet's catchy, melodic-meet-rough vocals still get the job done, more so in fact than the guitars, some parts of which feel a little uninspired and sometimes kind of break the mood of some songs. There's a good balance of hard-rocking, very catchy songs ("From Dust and Ruble" being my favourite) and slower, more melodic ones—and that without falling into the trap of going way too syrupy like they've done a few times in the past few albums.

There's been signs of songwriting fatigue in Iron Savior for many years now and it's still true on Kill or Get Killed, but they're still a power metal force to be reckoned with and this album might be a good step back in the right direction. Tiiiime, only time will tell! OK, shutting up now.