Steel Vengeance: Prisoners (remastered)

The US Metal band, Steel Vengeance, ever heard of them? Well Metal Mind Productions has and this is a re-mastered version of the band's 1988 release, Prisoners. Very much unheard of and if you read this reviewer's review of Steel Vengeance's 2nd album remaster, then you already know that I'm not a big fan, but the band's 3rd release is a giant leap better then their 2nd. The band has now gotten much more heavy and muscular, while copping some riffs from other bands from the same era, which is a bit lame, but at least this record is listenable.

The album kicks off with "Burned Out", with a double bass drum intro that instantly reminds of the Canadian band, Exciter, from their Violence & Force days, but just as with Steel Vengeance's 2nd effort, the vocals on this song are BURIED in dripping wet reverb and delay and just sounds like a complete mess. Just this CD opener is a huge improvement from the bands entire last effort, Second Offense. The next song, "Destroy", continues the new found maturity and better song writing, as does the AC/DC like intro of "Underworld". All and all, Prisoners definitely gives a nod to their contemporaries of that time like Armored Saint and Queensryche by borrowing a riff or two but still not quite doing much with them.

While this Prisoners is a step forward for Steel Vengeance, they were coming from the bottom of the barrel to begin with. This record is much easier to listen to, but at the same time it is still very Garage Band like with the vocals being overly processed and sounding very mid 80's generic. The guitar riffing has improved and has become more manly but the lead work is still quite lacking. The band even attempts a Stryper, "Soldiers Under Command" rip off riff in the intro to their tune, "Vengeance is Mine" and then follows it up on the following track, "Can't Stop the Rain" by stealing another part of the same Stryper classic! What were these guys thinking? Trying to use 2 different pieces from the song, "Soldiers Under Command" on two successive songs?!! All pretty lame! But as stated in the beginning, Prisoners is a better effort then the bands 2nd record, but it still isn't great. It is very derivative and borrows a little too much from other bands catalogs, but it is better.

Tracklist:
1. Burned Out
2. Destroy
3. Streets Of Gold
4. She'll Never Tell
5. Under World
6. Prisoners
7. Run From The Law
8. Till Tomorrow
9. Vengeance Is Mine
10. Can't Stop the Rain
11. She's Back (Demo)

Added: November 14th 2013
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2341
Language: english

[ Printer Friendly Page ]
[ Send to a Friend ]