AGENT STEEL - UNSTOPPABLE FORCE
UNSTOPPABLE FORCES OF THRASH
In 1987 Agent Steel continued their journey to world domination by releasing their second full-length album titled Unstoppable Force, and what a fitting title for an absolutely unstoppable album. Agent Steel proved that Skeptics Apocalypse wasn't just a one hit wonder. They managed to back it up with a perhaps even better album.
Bernie Versailles and Juan Garcia is one of the most underrated guitar duos in metal and here they constantly churn out remarkable riffs delivered at a crushing pace. But unlike their debut album that leaned a bit more towards USPM this album is overall a bit thrashier.
They dare to mix in some Alex Skolnick (Testament) sounding melodies and even some acoustic parts in songs like Chosen to Stay and Traveler.
Overall Agent Steel delivers some thrash anthems of the highest quality here, just listen to songs like Unstoppable Force, Never Surrender, Rager or the instrumental The Day At Guyana and you'll be aware of the unstoppable nature of Agent Steel's music.
The album manages to blend incredible fast rhythms with wonderful and melodic leads and add to that a vocal performance by John Cyriis that goes beyond what any other thrash vocalist has done before him. He can hit higher notes than anyone I've heard within this genre before. If we're talking about thrash, this is not a 100% thrash record like Exodus or Testament, No there are shades of speed and American power metal here. John Cyriis might be a bit odd for some people but don't be close minded. He is simiply fantastic.
I think that his highly unique style delivers on a level unheard of in metal prior to the release of Unstoppable Force, he's that good. Sure we have our Halfords and King Diamonds but Cyriis delivers another type of falsetto and it's just intoxicating in a good way.
The lyrical themes about paranoia and aliens is a truly haunting experience.
You can almost feel the presence of extraterrestrials when listening to this album. At least it will make you wonder what type of advanced Alien tech that made this album possible.
Agent Steel manages to create a sound here that takes the sound of Priest and Maiden and brings it up a notch not only in intensity but I think that this album is on par with the best albums of those legacy bands. Because Agent Steel builds their sound on more traditional metal bands. So don't go out expecting this to sound like Slayer or Kreator.
The well respected metal site BNR Metal hails Unstoppable Force as one of the best metal albums of 1987, any genre and I do certainly agree with that.
Agent Steel are a criminally underrated band and I think that they should be hailed as metal legends but unfortunately it took the band 12 long years to record a follow-up to Unstoppable Force, so they were unable to build on the momentum of this oh so brilliant album, I can only imagine what a third Agent Steel-album would have done with the upcoming Grunge wave. It would probably have sent Kurdt Cobain to orbit another planet, never to return again. Ah, wishful thinking. Anyhow Unstoppable Force is one of the best albums of the 80's. It's a masterpiece, there's no doubt about that.
Rating:
| INFO |
Label: Combat Year: 1987 Country: U.S.A. Duration: 39:10 Tracks: 9 Genre: Speed/Power/Thrash Reviewer: Ruthless Rating: 5/5 | ||||||||||||||||
| TRACKS | LINEUP | |||||||||||||||
| John Cyriis - Vocals Juan Garcia - Guitars Bernie Versailles - Guitars Michael Zaputil - Bass Chuck Profus - Drums |
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