Lethal Steel
Legion of the Night
High Roller Records
2016
Lethal Steel is a Swedish quartet, debuting with an album that sounds like it was recorded on a small budget in 1985, albeit it was recorded way more recently… they have this proto-metallic sound that owes a bit to Priest and a bit to NWOBHM, and I guess when they profess to like things like Jonah Quizz (Johan Längquist first band), Gotham City and Mindless Sinner, yeah, there’s quite that thread of influence too…
Let’s cut to the chase… the band is decent chop wise and Viktor Gustafsson is not half as bad as a singer. There’s nothing majorly bad with him in the big picture, apart from the fact that he’s not really powerful, a fact that would really make the band a lot better, had he been able to make his performances a bit more dynamic.
Tracks like “Sirius”, and “Warrior” are not bad at all, and the whole “b side” with songs like the power/doomy “Night of the Witch” and “Into the Void of Lucifer”, while “Nocturnal Seductress” and “Demon from the Past” are pretty much more straightforward without much of the gloom about them…
I suppose the band caters to the German/Swedish and international “True Metal” scenes that have trouble listening to “modern” productions and would prefer mediocre performances than say a beefier production or drop tuning, even if the bands play proper heavy metal… as long as you do the “occult” or “warfare/swords and shields” sort of concept, complete with spandex you can’t do wrong for them. So if you’re a “warrior” – you’re gonna love this shit… if you like your metal, you will not mind it, while if you’re very critical, you’ll totally dismiss it straight away. I stand somewhere in the middle. This could and should have been much better to have me “really” interested… the bands of 1983… well it was 1983 poor sound and being a bit average can be forgiven… bands in 2016 copying 1983 is not that enthralling.
Let’s cut to the chase… the band is decent chop wise and Viktor Gustafsson is not half as bad as a singer. There’s nothing majorly bad with him in the big picture, apart from the fact that he’s not really powerful, a fact that would really make the band a lot better, had he been able to make his performances a bit more dynamic.
Tracks like “Sirius”, and “Warrior” are not bad at all, and the whole “b side” with songs like the power/doomy “Night of the Witch” and “Into the Void of Lucifer”, while “Nocturnal Seductress” and “Demon from the Past” are pretty much more straightforward without much of the gloom about them…
I suppose the band caters to the German/Swedish and international “True Metal” scenes that have trouble listening to “modern” productions and would prefer mediocre performances than say a beefier production or drop tuning, even if the bands play proper heavy metal… as long as you do the “occult” or “warfare/swords and shields” sort of concept, complete with spandex you can’t do wrong for them. So if you’re a “warrior” – you’re gonna love this shit… if you like your metal, you will not mind it, while if you’re very critical, you’ll totally dismiss it straight away. I stand somewhere in the middle. This could and should have been much better to have me “really” interested… the bands of 1983… well it was 1983 poor sound and being a bit average can be forgiven… bands in 2016 copying 1983 is not that enthralling.