Steel Prophet
Omniscient
Cruz del Sur Music
2014
It took Steel Prophet several years to return, since their last album, I remember them making an announcement, about this album maybe sometime in 2007/8? And their last effort, was a whole decade ago?! 2004’s “Beware” with only a couple of vinyl compilations released in the meantime that I haven’t really checked into in all honesty. And if I were to be quite honest the Nadir D’ Priest “Beware” album, wasn’t necessarily bad, but he didn't possess the ability to match the vocal highs of Rick Mythiasin, who makes here a welcome return to the fold.
Well for starters “Trickery of the Scourge” is a good enough opener, in the mid but not sluggish, tempo territory in a way not too dissimilar from latter day Iron Maiden.
“When I Remake the World (A Key Flaw)” is a lot faster, but there seems to be a slight issue with the vocals with some of them getting more distant and buried in the mix in several points, “the lower ones” basically, making it sound a little odd at times.
“911” is a lot thrashier in its sound and interesting as well in its current themes, as it is concerned about the 9-11 incidents.
“Chariots of the Gods” is another more melodic moment that somehow manages to become more endearing and more classic in a sense…
“The Tree of Knowledge” is mostly good on the virtue of its guitars that are flash and sharp. It’s the single of the album, but while it has a lot of virtues, and is almost a good/great song the psychedelia in it sort of cancels out, a bit of its immediacy and counters the catchiness. It’s just too spacey… then again, I suppose the whole album is a little whacky and sci-fi, influenced, so this track is as good as any – or probably the best chance they had at a single…
“666 is Everywhere (The Heavy Metal Blues)” is anything but… blues, but other than a nice little guitar lick it has, it’s a largely tiresome bunch of clichés mashed up and turned into a song really.
“Oleander Deux” is basically – a bad acid “metal” trip! Just a couple of minutes of the band “wanking” in a “happy hippy” style!
“Aliens, Spaceships and Richard M. Nixon” quite frankly tired me – and only some riff ideas saved me from wanting to skip over. Next...
“Through Time and Space” is somewhat better, melodic and it sort of got my attention back again... even if it’s a bit too mellow.
“Funeral for Art” has nice riff but lacks the melodies to entice you sufficiently into following the song throughout its duration.
“Call of Katahdin” leads to… “Transformation Staircase” which has got decent playing and some quite impressive drumming but not much else going on for it...
There are also two bonus tracks: “Bohemian Rhapsody” which is a fairly decent and faithful cover of the brilliant Queen crown jewel and “1984 (George Orwell is Rolling in His Grave)” an almost fragrantly paced thrash/punk rapidly executed power metal hybrid that at least shows a bid of kick injected back into the band... ehm, while it’s not a particularly impressive number, at least it’s energetic enough, more than almost anything on the entirety of the “basic album”.
I suppose the long hiatus has caused the band to loosen up a bit and while they can still write a riff and are instrumentally on very good levels, their songs tend to be a little too loose. They always had some prog tendencies, but they were able to pull it all together and make their albums tight and more cohesive, at least on their earlier, most acclaimed material. Rick Mythiasin, who’s been through a lot physically, is in reasonable, shape, vocally, but seems rather badly mixed and I suppose that might have to do either with a small budget or not sufficient time? The latter, would probably not be true though...
As for the concept, the whacked out sci-fi concept, that comes complete in an illustrated cover-story I think some 34 or more pages – is quite interesting as “value” but then again, that would only be applicable if you dig the story and the particular brand of sci-fi and I must say that it didn’t quite appeal to me that much.
It’s a return of sorts for the band, but not to the late 90s/early00s status they had. Obviously it will bring joy to those fans that have followed them closely, but to the more casual public, I think it might just be just “another day”.
Well for starters “Trickery of the Scourge” is a good enough opener, in the mid but not sluggish, tempo territory in a way not too dissimilar from latter day Iron Maiden.
“When I Remake the World (A Key Flaw)” is a lot faster, but there seems to be a slight issue with the vocals with some of them getting more distant and buried in the mix in several points, “the lower ones” basically, making it sound a little odd at times.
“911” is a lot thrashier in its sound and interesting as well in its current themes, as it is concerned about the 9-11 incidents.
“Chariots of the Gods” is another more melodic moment that somehow manages to become more endearing and more classic in a sense…
“The Tree of Knowledge” is mostly good on the virtue of its guitars that are flash and sharp. It’s the single of the album, but while it has a lot of virtues, and is almost a good/great song the psychedelia in it sort of cancels out, a bit of its immediacy and counters the catchiness. It’s just too spacey… then again, I suppose the whole album is a little whacky and sci-fi, influenced, so this track is as good as any – or probably the best chance they had at a single…
“666 is Everywhere (The Heavy Metal Blues)” is anything but… blues, but other than a nice little guitar lick it has, it’s a largely tiresome bunch of clichés mashed up and turned into a song really.
“Oleander Deux” is basically – a bad acid “metal” trip! Just a couple of minutes of the band “wanking” in a “happy hippy” style!
“Aliens, Spaceships and Richard M. Nixon” quite frankly tired me – and only some riff ideas saved me from wanting to skip over. Next...
“Through Time and Space” is somewhat better, melodic and it sort of got my attention back again... even if it’s a bit too mellow.
“Funeral for Art” has nice riff but lacks the melodies to entice you sufficiently into following the song throughout its duration.
“Call of Katahdin” leads to… “Transformation Staircase” which has got decent playing and some quite impressive drumming but not much else going on for it...
There are also two bonus tracks: “Bohemian Rhapsody” which is a fairly decent and faithful cover of the brilliant Queen crown jewel and “1984 (George Orwell is Rolling in His Grave)” an almost fragrantly paced thrash/punk rapidly executed power metal hybrid that at least shows a bid of kick injected back into the band... ehm, while it’s not a particularly impressive number, at least it’s energetic enough, more than almost anything on the entirety of the “basic album”.
I suppose the long hiatus has caused the band to loosen up a bit and while they can still write a riff and are instrumentally on very good levels, their songs tend to be a little too loose. They always had some prog tendencies, but they were able to pull it all together and make their albums tight and more cohesive, at least on their earlier, most acclaimed material. Rick Mythiasin, who’s been through a lot physically, is in reasonable, shape, vocally, but seems rather badly mixed and I suppose that might have to do either with a small budget or not sufficient time? The latter, would probably not be true though...
As for the concept, the whacked out sci-fi concept, that comes complete in an illustrated cover-story I think some 34 or more pages – is quite interesting as “value” but then again, that would only be applicable if you dig the story and the particular brand of sci-fi and I must say that it didn’t quite appeal to me that much.
It’s a return of sorts for the band, but not to the late 90s/early00s status they had. Obviously it will bring joy to those fans that have followed them closely, but to the more casual public, I think it might just be just “another day”.