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The Australian
metal scene while very small has spawned several excellent bands in
the past several years, Black Steel being one of them. As a follow
up to their debut CD EP “Battle Call”, Black Steel delivers an
anthemic blast of traditional power metal with “Destructor”. Lead
track "Breaking The Chains" is an excellent piece of heroic power
metal featuring thunderous guitars and Matt Williams assertive
vocals which can be compared in some cases to a more melodic Bobby
"Blitz" Ellsworth from Overkill. Emanuel Rudnicki and
Andrew DiStefano
absolutely terrorize the fretboard with their twin attack on "Hell's
Gates".
"Bonded By Steel" can be described in one word, epic. This
track combines early to mid 80's power metal with 21st century
production values. Once again the guitars on this track are
staggering in terms of sounding extremely unique. "Vengeance
Of The Damned" starts out with a dirty guitar riff and surprisingly
becomes a a warriors hymn of sorts (somehow the term ballad just
does not fit). "Too Wild To Tame" would please fans of
Hammerfall as it would be comparable to material from "Crimson
Thunder".
Comparisons can be drawn to Iron Maiden, Manowar and other true
metal bands in terms of influences, yet Black Steel manages to put
their own unique stamp on the tracks. Unlike Germany,
Australia does not have the sheer volume of bands playing this genre
of music, thus they are able to better draw from personal influences
than compete with other power metal bands. These facts stated,
Black Steel is better than most all of the power metal bands on the
Century Media, Nuclear Blast, SPV and Metal Blade labels in
particular. Black Steel is on a comparable plane in terms of
compositions with, dare I say Manowar and Virgin Steele.
Track Listing:
Breaking
the chains
Time marches on
Bonded by Steel
Vengeance of the damned
Hells Gates
Destructor
Too wild to tame
Forever
Hail of fire
Rise up
BLACK STEEL ARE:
Dave
Harrison (Bass)
Matt Williams (Vocals)
Emanuel Rudnicki (Guitar)
Damien Petrilli (Drums)
Andrew DiStefano (Guitar)
Additional Information:
Black Steel - Battle Call CD Review
Black Steel - Relentless
Force CD Review
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