Steel Prophet
The God Machine

The band Steel Prophet has been around for a while now and has some albums in their discography, the first one was released back in 1995. They had a long break between 2004 and 2014 and now they have a new vocalist in the charismatic RD Lipakis. Lipikis is mostly known for his role in Mystic Prophecy but he is also an acclaimed producer and has done some more stuff as well. He also has very distinct voice creating a very big risk of a strong similarity to his main band as Steel Prophet never has been far from the sound of Mystic Prophecy, Steel Prophet of course made their stuff before Mystic Prophecy but I think the latter are more known at least here in Europe. The artwork on this new album is rather cool though but it also makes me think of that Greek/German band I have mentioned a few times now.

Stylewise it is quite powerful heavy/power metal, not overly different from many other bands we here in the genre. Lipakis makes it sound very familiar for anyone knowing his other stuff, and as usual when Lipakis is involved it is an album with a really strong production. The songs also show a pretty decent variation, they are ten when you count them and the playing time is fairly well weighted. But there might not be too much that strikes me when listening to this album, great vocals but in terms of ideas it isn’t the most exciting album I have ever heard – it has all been done many times before.

If I should go for the negatives immediately I can say that I miss some novelty, some fresh thinking and it does sound a lot like another album by Mystic Prophecy which might be a bit negative for Lipakis’ main band as well as Steel Prophet. But as Mystic Prophecy is a good band you cannot really claim that it is too negative to be similar to them and the songs of this album are good, I like their energy and the quality that they manage to show. And I am quite sure that most fans of the classic heavy metal or Lipakis’ bands or Steel Prophet will find this album to be quite appealing and I have a hard time seeing that any of those should be disappointed with a fine album like this.

Perhaps a bit much paint-by-numbers and too little novelty to be really outstanding but as a strong heavy metal album it is really difficult to argue against this album. So for all you fans out there I would recommend having a look at this album, it is really good even though it may not find itself considered amongst the greatest in the history of the genre.

HHHHHHH