Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Steel Prophet
Label: Cruz Del Sur Music
Release: 2014
Running time: 56:06
Rating: 4.5/5
The Lord works in mysterious ways. Steel Prophet are coming back too! Yet another band with roots in the eighties, even though their debut studio album »The Goddess Principle« only came out in 1995! After a lengthy dormancy, Steel Prophet are finally waking up with a brand-new studio record, their first after a ten-year break and eighth overall. The band made their first serious push into the European market in 1999, when they put out the outstanding studio album »Dark Halucinations« on the »eternal« (German) label Nuclaer Blast Records, then kept the momentum going with a string of excellent follow-ups, right up to 2004’s »Beware«. That was followed by a turbulent period full of lineup instability, which only helped push Steel Prophet into (temporary) retirement.
The demons have clearly been beaten, and now we have »Omniscient«. Back in the fold is the excellent singer Rick Mythiasin, who, besides being considered the most distinctive and recognizable voice in the Steel Prophet discography, has also sung for New Eden, Redemption and Taraxacum over the course of his career. Although Mythiasin is still often an ominously wailing siren on the new album, his performance shows that over the years his voice has thickened up a bit and dropped lower. That works especially well when he’s deepening the album’s distinctly dark atmosphere, where he adds more grit to his tone. That gloomy, post-apocalyptic atmosphere has been a companion to Steel Prophet’s life and work since forever. An integral part of it. And it stays that way on »Omniscient«.
Picture the best elements of the classic American bands that appeared on the globe in the early eighties, starting with early Fates Warning, (also early) Queensryche, Steel Assasin, Vicious Rumors, Warrior, Liege Lord, Warlord… The song The Tree Of Knowledge, for instance, is a great example of the band’s old-school vibe – a typical representative (a »lost Dark Halucinations« track, in which you can’t miss the first steps of Fates Warning, nor the influence of the British NWOBHM movement (Iron Maiden). Steve Kachinsky keeps up the outstanding technical polish of the classic metal tradition Steel Prophet are sworn to. Sudden tempo shifts are driven by dominant guitar phrases carved out in pure retro sound, without a pinch of sweetener. What sounds incredibly good, and always has in Steel Prophet, is the impressive harmonized picking in thirds, which keeps watch over the guitar phrases at breakneck speed and ramps up the dramatic twists throughout the album. Once again, the album’s high points are thoroughly seasoned with this element. Double bass drum work is a given ingredient that can’t be missing from the modern heavy metal world. And the drumming, with its colorful passages and rolls, is truly outstanding on the album!
The production is alive, slightly dirty, vampirically sinister, and the guitar riffs cut with the edge of the sharpest blade. The album is full of post-apocalyptic visions. The guitar solos are once again a big treat of the songs and the album. They show the guitarists’ exceptional technical mastery, along with a brilliant alertness in using an innate sense for placing (spacing out) the notes within them. The guitars are often layered on top of one another, which further thickens the album’s sonic picture. Often there’s also some generous dive-bombing with the tremolo arm, adding extra howling sounds that work wonderfully as a special kind of »ornamentation« alongside the guitar phrases. Steel Prophet show their complex take on speed metal best in the composition 666 is Everywhere (The Heavy Metal Blues). It’s the longest piece on the album, with constant dizzying mood swings, yet the band keeps the composition tight the whole way through!
Oleander Deux is a roughly one-minute-long »joke« that you can take as an annoying add-on to the album, or as a moment where the band deliberately allowed itself more fun in the studio and showed off its sarcastic side. Given that there are as many as thirteen tracks on the album, you wouldn’t miss this one if it weren’t there. The complex side of the band’s musical character suggests that »Omniscient« is no easy nut to crack. It takes more spins in the CD player and a longer time for the songs to crawl into your ear. Aliens, Spaceships And Richard M. Nixon is considered the album’s most complex track, and it’s as deliberately chaotic as its title. The song almost falls apart in its motifs and their twists, while the drums claim a huge amount of space in it for a ton of witty improvisations that border on »jazz fables«.
»Omniscient« is an excellent comeback album from Steel Prophet. All fans of the old-school American speed metal tradition, take note! This is an album you absolutely have to check out, because it will thoroughly loosen up your neck vertebrae and clear out your ear canals. From the first moment to the last of its running time, this is an album that radiates exceptional charisma, fresh new ideas and the band’s unique musical face, which makes it a more than worthy successor to the band’s best work, led by »Dark Halucinations« and »The Book Of Dead«. Let’s hope the band hooks up with a bigger name in the metal world and heads out on a European tour with them. Considering that Steve Kachinsky is part of Redemption, it’s clear that Steel Prophet are an exceptional musical squadron that delivers the best live too, for anyone who loves classic heavy metal squashed into a retro American recipe! »Omniscient« is a true little bible of ».old school U.S speed« metal! It honestly doesn’t get more authentic than this.
Lineup
Rick Mythiasin – vocals
Steve Kachinsky – guitar
Jon Paget – guitar
Vince Dennis – bass
John Tarascio – drums
Production
Steve Kachinsky
Tracklist
1. Trickery Of The Scourge
2. When I Remake The World (A Key Flaw)
3. 911
4. Chariots Of The Gods
5. The Tree Of Knowledge
6. 666 Is Everywhere (The Heavy Metal Blues)
7. Oleander Deux
8. Aliens, Spaceships And Richard M. Nixon
9. Through Time And Space
10. Funeral For Art
11. Call Of Katahdin
12. Transformation Staircase
13. Bohemian Rhapsody
14. 1984 (George Orwell Is Rolling In His Grave)
