With Iron Savior’s seventh album being released, founder Piet Sielck talks about his near-fallout from the metal scene, how his comeback relates to the story of The Savior, and his theories on time travel and life on other planets.
Iron Savior fans have been really excited that you guys have finally come out with the seventh studio album of Iron Savior. The last one was in 2007. How long was this one in the works?
Piet: I initially started working on this in late 2010. That was about when I sort of cleared up this rather bad situation I was in with my label that I used to own, Dockyard. I don’t know if you heard that name before.
Before that, I had two really not so great years, I must say. So after the situation cleared up a bit, I got back into music. That was around October, November 2010. And I started writing the first song for The Landing, which actually was “Heavy Metal Never Dies.”
So why did that one come up first? Motivation from coming back into playing after the troubles you had with the label?
Yeah. I mean, as I briefly mentioned, the label was going down. The bad thing about it was that, first of all, it wasn’t my fault. I gave my money to it, but I didn’t do the daily business. It was other people who managed that. And the not-so-funny thing about it was that those other people just left me alone – they just took off and left me alone with all the bills, the unpaid invoices and shit. I had to dig through that for almost two years.
If you can imagine, within these two years, I really felt quite bad at times. And I really, really, really was thinking of quitting everything. I was so fed up with everything that, a couple of times throughout those years, I couldn’t actually picture myself doing anything in music again.
Somehow luckily, this changed when this situation cleared up a bit and I was able to sell the remains of the company to my now-record label AFM.
AFM took it over, and everything in the end didn’t go totally down the drain for me. That was the turnaround point for me; it took a heavy, heavy load off my shoulders, and my life cheered up a bit.
That’s really good to hear. I can imagine that would be just devastating when times are that hard.
Oh yeah, it was really, really bad. If I wouldn’t have lost my hair already, I would have lost it within these times.
Today, I’m really okay with it and well, look. I’m not the type of person that looks back all the time. What I want to do now – and what I also wanted to do in 2010 (and luckily succeeded) – was say “Okay, now it’s time to look ahead, look in the future, and make your peace with the past.” And that’s what I did.
Writing music, enjoying music, is the most important thing of all. And because I had given up already, I had no expectations at all when I came back to music and wrote The Landing. It wasn’t important if anybody would like it at all or not. I was more or less writing it for myself to get out of this hole I was in.
That’s probably one of the main reasons why The Landing turned out to be like it turned out to be.
Right, because your own passion was infused into it. It wasn’t written for anybody else; it was for you.
Exactly. It was absolutely for me. For example, let’s take “Heavy Metal Never Dies.” I mean, how cheesy is that? Of course, the title itself, but even the song. But it was the way I was feeling, and so I said fuck on the cheesiness and I don’t care if people like it or not, or if people will laugh about it or not. That’s the way I felt it, and hell, I did it.
It’s amazing how many people have done it, old and new. Gamma Ray does it, Manowar does it, Sabaton’s done it, Hammerfall does it; I could go on forever. And they’re all a little over-the-top, but they’re all the stuff we pump our fist to at the end of the day, whether or not we like to admit it.
Yeah, and as for the people who now say “How cheesy is this?” I’m quite sure if they came to an Iron Savior show and we play “Heavy Metal Never Dies,” they would raise their horns.
They would raise both horns.
Yeah. [laughs] I mean it’s something you just have to do. Even if you hate it, you just have to.
Absolutely. But really? I don’t think anybody really hates it.
Yeah, I don’t think so either.
So after “Heavy Metal Never Dies,” you went into writing the seventh album, part seven of the story. So did you write the story before you started writing the music, vice-versa, or was it not so linear of a process?
No, no. Actually, I had written up too many ideas. It was quite clear that the first song was going to be “Heavy Metal Never Dies.” So, the general outline and the general direction of where the album would be heading was set with that song.
I didn’t have any idea about what I wanted to do; the only approach and the only plan I had was to please myself with what I’m doing. I felt that I really wanted to create melodies again, some awesome guitar riffs. I wanted to do heavy metal the way I love it, you know?
I really had a lot of fun doing the songwriting. It was like musical therapy for me. I was living up more and more, and in the end I really was on fire. I could have been writing songs forever. I was sad when it was finally over.
What made you decide when it was over?
Well, mostly time. I really had to stop [creating songs] and I had to keep going with the production to keep the schedule. I had to postpone the release one month. Actually, the first release of The Landing here in Europe was planned for October [2011]. But because the songwriting was so good, at a certain point I had to say to myself, “Okay man, this is going to be really good, it’s going to be better than the stuff you did before, so take your time and don’t ruin just for having it ready for the fixed date. Make the sacrifice, and postpone the release until November and it’ll still be okay.” It was a good decision, and it was exactly those four weeks that I needed to make things…”Gooder”… as the Germans say.
[laughs] Gotcha. So, besides a couple of the songs about “heavy metal,” The Landing is the seventh part in the story of Iron Savior, correct?
Yes and no. I mean, there are two songs on the album that are connected with The Savior story and –
Let me guess: “Hall Of The Heroes” and “The Savior,” right?
“The Savior” and “Starlight,” actually. “Hall Of The Heroes” is not really even sci-fi; it’s more like Lord of the Rings-type of heroes I picture with this…
It’s really funny you say that. I literally have written in my notes that “Hall of Heroes comes off as the pinnacle, the epic part of the album, kind of like one of the major battles in Lord Of The RIngs.” Dead serious.
Yeah, I really like the Lord Of The Rings, and I really like how the movies were done. I think the [director] seemed to have the same pictures in mind that we as readers of Lord Of The Rings did. His movie scenes matched the images in my head. When I was writing Hall Of The Heroes, I had an exact scene in mind: white plains with knights riding out into battle. It’s a little cheesy as well, but I loved it.
That’s awesome.
Also, it’s my secret favorite song on the album, Hall Of The Heroes.
Well it’s not going to be so secret anymore, you just told me! I think that “Hall of the Heroes” and “No Guts, No Glory” are my favorites, especially because [the latter is] uplifting.
Yes, a very positive song, I think.
I’m a sucker for positive metal songs.
So, you mentioned that “The Savior” and “Starlight” are the two songs that relate to the story. I read all the lyrics, but for the sake of it, can you briefly explain to me how?
With the Iron Savior being out in the vastness of space thinking about what he is and how he approaches life, it’s kind of philosophical. In the end, he comes to the conclusion that he is the mighty savior and he has to return to Earth. That he is what he is. There is also some self-reflection in that, because I also came to a point [after those two difficult years of my life] when finally I got back my identity. So, I thought there’s a little savior in this one. “Starlight,” the song that follows “The Savior,” is about the idea that now that the Savior knows who he is and what he wants, he has made his mind up to return somehow and finally land – also just like me.
So the Iron Savior became sentient in your story. I know we talked about Lord of the Rings, which is fantasy, but are you a big sci-fi fan in general? Was there an AI (artificial intelligence) book that contributed to the idea originally when you were writing the story – for instance, “I, Robot,” or something like that?
Hmmm, no. Actually, if you look at this Iron Savior Story, it’s more like the sum of all sci-fi stuff I’ve consumed throughout my life so far, I’d say. So, it’s a good mixture of everything I’ve been reading or watching in the past 40 years. Starting with Star Trek first original series, Star Wars, books I’ve been reading, Dune, everything. There’s basically a good portion of everything in there.
Do you think humans will eventually settle on another planet?
Yes, actually, I think it’s quite likely. The big question is: Can we travel beyond the speed of light? Is there something like warp engines going on? If that can happen, then of course, traveling from system to system is absolutely possible. Of course, I can’t foresee the future. Maybe it’s the case that it’s just not possible in our universe, and all other civilizations around us are faced with the same situation that they are stuck to their own planets and cannot leave them. I really don’t think so, though. I think there must be a way to travel beyond the speed of light; this, of course, would open up the gates to the universe.
h4. I agree. And on that note, do you also believe that computers can become sentient? You know, that we can build robots or machines that eventually become self-aware and make their own decisions?
I definitely say that there is a danger in that. Of course, I’m surrounded by computers; I have hundreds of them by now. If you look at the development just over the past 30 years, from the first computer models – like Atari or stuff like that – they are ridiculous compared to what these machines can do today. Look at the iPhone 4S and Siri; it’s fun on one hand, but it really is kind of scary to me. Artificial intelligence is definitely on its way, I’d say. I mean, we’ve all seen Terminator! [laughs] It’s not so unlikely.
Especially with how long we’ve been imagining it now and how fast things are developing. I agree with you. I work in technology, program on computers, and I still don’t like the idea.
And the damned thing about it is that there are people who are building this stuff who that might not be that responsible, because the most important thing, still, is to make money. Creating a killer artificial intelligence would speed up that process like hell. I don’t think that people will evaluate too much of what danger might result from it, but instead just think about how much money they can make with it. That’s the fact that scares me just a little bit about it.
Absolutely. On a similar topic, that’s sort of the idea that I got from March of Doom – you know, mankind playing with fire and creating madness and…
Yeah, “March of Doom” goes back to very realistic scenery. I was writing that when Fukushima was on the news. It’s this insane belief of mankind that man can control technology, that man can control everything. Yeah, guess not. It’s the same thing we talked about before: if something dangerous comes up, but you can make money with it, people say they can control it no problem. But atomic power is not something you can just control that easily.
You can say that again.
Ok so, before we close this: I know we started with “Heavy Metal Never Dies,” but I’d like to touch on “R. U. Ready?”. I hope I don’t offend you when I say this. But when I listen to it, there’s a certain riff about halfway through the song that always causes Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law” stuck in my head.
Well, that’s not the worst song to compare it with.
There’s a certain riff where it seems to match the first 3-4 notes of the main melody to “Breaking the Law.”
I sing the line “Breaking the Law,” but I really don’t know where [those notes] show up in the song. “Breaking the Law” is one of my favorite songs. If it’s in there, I would’ve done it on purpose.
If I could, I wish I could pull it up and figure it out; it’s about halfway through “R. U. Ready?” I could be slightly off, but I think it’s there, I really do. When I heard it, I wondered if you were doing that purposely. Then I read the lyrics and I figured you were, because the whole song you’re paying tribute to all the great rock legends: Zeppelin, Priest, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Rainbow.
I’ll listen back to the song and check it out! It’s going to be interesting. I can assure you, though, that I’m not offended. Actually, it would’ve been a good idea to do it on purpose. [He laughs.] But I just didn’t.
Well, now you can take credit for it, ok? I won’t tell anybody.
One last question. In the song “R. U. Ready,” the first line is 1967. What are you referencing?
It was Jimmy Hendricks. That, for me, was the starting point for distorted guitars and stuff like that.
I think that’s a great reason. Thanks so much for the chat, Piet. Until next time!
About the Author: Stephanie (a.k.a. Steph Rose)
Steph is a tea-drinking, metal-obsessed resident of South Florida. She programmed this site in the name of metal, she travels cross-country (and hopefully internationally eventually) in support of metal, and she should probably be in Manowar because she sure as hell would die for metal.