Steel Prophet: Omniscient (Cruz del Sur Music)

Steel Prophet: Omniscient (Cruz del Sur Music)

Heavy metal veterans Steel Prophet command a certain amount of respect by followers of the genre due to the fact that the band’s catalogue has several gems. Some say that “Messiah” (2000) is a classic, while others guarantee the same for “Dark Hallucinations” (1999), still others use the term “cult” in reference to “The Goddess Principle” (1995) or “Book of the Dead” (2001). Regardless of which particular albums are preferred, Steel Prophet wins the argument. The band’s public finds something special in the alliance of guitarist Steve Kachinsky and singer Rick Mythiasin.

Now, in 2014—after a long hiatus and a bunch of other problems, including Rick’s absence—Steel Prophet returns with Rick on vocals to answer: Does this team still possess the magic? One possible way to understand this work is to consider the band’s cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” For instance, if you search other covers of said song, you will notice one overriding theme: just about everyone is doing their own “twist” on the song: lots of piano covers, ukelele versions, drum or acoustic interpretations or choir covers, so on and so forth. Whenever someone claims to do a version with their own “twist” it often means that they do not have the talent, ability and/or willingness to tackle the song as recorded originally. Imagine then the audacity of Steel Prophet to approach the cover with the intention of doing a rather faithful rendition, actually. Further, Steel Prophet has covered the song live at Keep it True Festival. It looks and sounds pretty darn good, too, on the video of it.

As a complete album, “Omniscient” exudes effort and confidence by a band sure of itself, that knows how to make quality heavy metal built on great guitar playing, wonderful singing and good vibes all around. In many ways, “Omniscient” serves as a culmination of Steel Prophet’s previous albums, as well as a reminder of why the band is relevant in 2014. Therefore, “Omniscient” revolves around uptempo songs overall, but the range varies from power, heavy and semi-thrashy metal, and prog and classic rock show up in subtle ways, carefully crafted around the “traditional metal” template sound, which, of course, means, amongst other things, large quantities of guitars, melodies, big riffs and shredding. Naturally, it’s great to hear Rick singing for Steel Prophet again, showing the energetic and melodic sides for which the band is known. “Omniscient” reveals that they have done much work in order to win back the trust of the people. In this equation there is only one element missing now: more audience to hear the album. Steel Prophet is looking to find you and win you over. Count me in. www.facebook.com/SteelProphet

www.reverbnation.com/steelprophet

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