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Stainless Steel: Metal Machine

Traditional Heavy Metal

3.5/5.0

Website (Label)
Pure Underground Records
by Craig Hartranft
09.06.2013

Stainless Steel: from 1987.

German metal band Stainless Steel's roots go back to the traditional heavy metal of the Eighties, when they released two albums, In Your Back (1985) and Molten Metal (1987). A compilation of the two arrived in 2005. Now the band is back, after nearly 30 years, with new material, Metal Machine. It's still 1985.

But that's not a bad thing. Stainless Steel gets the essence of classic melodic heavy metal, the kind on the side of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. A decent groove, big rhythm section, melodic vocals, and ripping guitar solos. Vocalist Ralf Scholz can get off the rails sometimes. Trying to reach higher registers he can get a bit scratchy as on Master of the Universe. Aside from that, the aforementioned components are there, the songs are varied, and never lacking for crisp guitar solos, something that made metal of that era (or any era) terrific. It's a fine return to form for the band, better than average classic metal.

Best tracks: Preachers of Hate, Kiss of Judas, Disaster, the metal anthem Hold On, and the metal rocker We Want It, You've Got It. Unfortunately, I can only point you to the label's website where you can listen to snippets from two songs.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Stainless Steel's Metal Machine revisits the band's roots delivering traditional melodic heavy metal of the Eighties. It's 1985 deja vu.

Alphabetical Index

Three years have passed since Sweden's Cruzh dropped their second long-player, Tropical Thunder, also introducing their new singer, Alex Waghorn. Now the band returns with The Jungle Revolution ... [ Read More ]