Published on Mar 16, 2000
When I originally reviewed
Dark Hallucinations, the debut release from prog-metal band
Steel Prophet last year, I made two observations about the band.
The first was that the band often sounded a lot like a heavier
Queensryche – and the second was that it sometimes was difficult to
stay focused on the music. But for this second observation, the
album was quite enjoyable.
Now, Steel Prophet returns to the record bins (boy, remember
when you could say
that without people rolling their eyes at you?) with their
latest release
Messiah – a disc that puts a little more focus on the metal
side of their music, thus allowing guitarist/band leader Steve
Kachinsky Blackmoor and crew the chance to truly find their own
voice. And while there is still a question about keeping the
listener hanging on every note, it’s an improvement over their last
disc.
New drummer Kevin Cafferty seems to be one reason for the
injection of new fire into the band. It’s almost as if he’s able to
start and stop on a dime, going from more traditional beats to
full-tilt thrash without batting an eye.
Another factor which helps Steel Prophet – Blackmoor, Cafferty,
vocalist Rick Mythiasin, guitarist John Pons and bassist Vince
Dennis – is it seems they dropped the idea of trying to keep a
concept going throughout certain songs as they did on
Dark Hallucinations. If there is a theme connecting these
songs, the focus is no longer on drawing attention to the fact.
Instead, each track is allowed to come into its own.
This is the kind of approach that Steel Prophet needed – and it
works well. From the bone-shattering intro of “The Ides Of March”
(anyone who had to read Julius Caesar in high school or college
will appreciate the meaning), Steel Prophet immediately let you
know that they’re open for business. Other tracks like “Earth And
Sky,” “Unseen” and the title track all reinforce this – and, in the
process, gives Steel Prophet more room to develop their own sound
and move away from the Queensryche comparisons.
In truth, there is not a weak track on
Messiah, but one pitfall still lies in the band’s path –
namely, it’s far too easy for the listener to lose immediate focus
on the songs. Tracks like “Dawn Of Man” are well worth the
listener’s full attention, but more often than not, I found myself
drifting along until I was snapped back into consciousness. I mean,
there’s worse ways to listen to an album, but Steel Prophet deserve
the listener’s attention.
The sad thing is, I don’t know what the band can do to fix this.
Maybe they might think about boosting Mythiasin’s vocals just a
little bit in the mix; maybe they want to add a little more fire to
the guitar work (which, in all fairness, they do on tracks like
“Rapture” and “Ghosts Once Past”). Then again, this band is not
stupid; they’ve taken a long time to get where they are today, and
if this is part of their plan, I’m willing to ride it out.
Messiah builds on the strong base Steel Prophet laid down
with
Dark Hallucinations – and while this is a very good album,
it will be interesting to see how the band takes what they’ve
created as a legacy so far and builds upon it the next time
around.