traditional progressive metal: Soul of Steel (Italy): "Journey to Infinity"

traditional progressive metal: Soul of Steel (Italy): "Journey to Infinity"

Even though perhaps the name might suggest bombastic power/heavy metal, Soul of Steel's targeted audience would be more the Dream Theater public: sort of brainy, keyboardy, melodic guitar and sing-along vocals. Soul of Steel is not "macho metal," and "intellectual metal" would be a better way of looking at the music.

They often sound upbeat, but in a proggy-keyboard-guitar melodic way. The bottom line is that Soul of Steel offers a good album with the prog metal bases covered, in the sense of a coherent album and sound, in which the band also has the space to explore different moods, a bit more rocking in places, some symphonic moments, mellower segments, fast soloing, melodic soloing, ballads, and other such things. At the same time, Soul of Steel aims to please and not to disappoint, and seem very aware that they have to keep the sound together as prog metal.

Personally, and this is just my opinion, Soul of Steel is a competent band. That's important to keep in mind. They are clearly capable and talented. The songs should appeal to people really into traditional prog metal, and definitely if the listener follows other traditional metal bands from Italy, given that Soul of Steel shares some affinities with that sound.

If the person reading this review has already made up her mind or his mind that they do not like prog metal, then Soul of Steel might not be the favorite cup of tea.

In my opinion, the singing is good and fits the music. It is not very aggressive or even soulful or very high, either. Rather, it is a relatively smooth and soft, more on the thin side of singing, then grit or grime.

Again, recommended for the love-it-all traditional prog metal enthusiasts.

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