RISING STEEL
“Beyond The Gates Of Hell”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Rising Steel are a heavy metal band from France formed in 2012, releasing three albums to date – ‘Return Of The Warlord’ (2016), ‘Fight Them All’ (2020), and ‘Beyond The Gates Of Hell’ released in 2022…

…featuring the bands heavy hitting and (occasional) thrashy approach to traditional heavy metal. The bands sophomore album was a storming gallop of all out metal – with new album ‘Beyond The Gates Of Hell’ promising more, much more! Exploding into life with the title song ‘Beyond The Gates Of Hell’, Rising Steel are quickly into their stride, hammering the senses with a menacing attitude and a fire and brimstone barrage of heavy metal – heavy metal that is melodic and thrashy! Think bands such as Annihilator and Metallica…mix their sound with that of power metallers Accept and traditional metal legends Iron Maiden, and you might just get somewhere near the sound of ‘Beyond The Gates Of Hell’ (the song) and Rising Steel as a whole. ‘Cause after such a storming start to the new album, methinks you need to prepare for a battering of thrashy trad metal…

…with the band picking up pace for ‘From Darkness’. And the heaviness too! Pushing forward at a brilliant head bang-able speed, Rising Steel pound the ground hard, rocking buildings to their foundations, causing devastation wherever they (may) roam. A superb opening double becomes a triple, as ‘Life Awaits’ once again increases the pace and bustles forth with an abrasive nature not heard before. German power metal legends Rage are masters of injecting many elements of thrash into their root sound – Rising Steel proving to be just as masterful. Their root sound a meld of thrash and traditional heavy metal. A cracking mix of two of my favourite three styles of metal (the third (as if you couldn’t guess) is power metal). Anthemic metal thunders into sight with ‘Death Of A Vampire’, changing gears to become an all out metaller, and then dropping a couple to resume the more familiar anthemic stomp. The band showing their prowess at travelling all around the metal genre, visiting every corner to give the listener a varied, and very attractive listening experience.

Blistering pace lights up the album in the mighty shape of ‘Run For Your Life’ – a high velocity rampage of fast and furious thrash! Yes – thrash! ‘Run For Your Life’ is more thrash than heavy metal – and a glorious tirade of attitude and anger too. Rising Steel showing their ferocious, less melodic, and much rawer side. And it’s a side I like – and I reckon you’ll like it too! Sinister sounding like ‘South Of Heaven’ era Slayer, the band ramp up their thrashy side with ‘Infinite Pain’ – powering forth with all the guts and glory of Overkill. I can’t quite believe this is the same band as when I first heard them two years ago. It’s like they’ve moved neighbourhoods, from a heavy metal hamlet to a pad in thrash town! From just adding touches of thrash to their sound, the band are now throwing in massive slabs of the stuff – Rising Steel (potentially) now forging a reputation as a thrash metal band. An absolute stunning amount of growth in just a couple of years! And enforcing that growth, ‘Skullcrusher’ is a barnstorming thrasher that excites the senses and tingles every pleasure zone known to man…and woman! The band hitting the bullseye very hard with their new album…

…unrelenting in a devastating approach to delivering the goods! Now imagine the power driven sound of Judas Priest mixed with thrash…and that’s exactly what ‘My Burning Time’ sounds like. It’s like a thrashy traditional metal roller coaster, twisting and turning this way and that, rattling your bones like a baby rattles a rattle! The intensity is top notch, and has been since the album began – showing no sign of dissipating, as the band storm on with ‘Beast’. The slowest (laughing out loud) song on offer, ‘Beast’ is mid tempo hustle and bustle, rough and tough heavy metal, with the layer of thrash a little thinner than anywhere else on ‘Beyond The Gates Of Hell’ (the album). Rising Steel end the album in menacing mood, a haunting keyboard passage giving life to the sinister sounding ‘We Are Free’. Mixing a little doom into the songs foot stomping metal march, Rising Steel show they’re not just all about speed and a thrashy nature.

Overall, a thunderous and fairly thrash metal motivated album of pace, power, and head bang ability.

TRACKLIST

Beyond The Gates Of Hell
From Darkness
Life Awaits
Death Of A Vampire
Run For Your Life
Infinite Pain
Skullcrusher
My Burning Time
Beast
We Are Free

https://www.rising-steel.fr/
https://www.facebook.com/risingsteelmetaL

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