Smashing the city, defying the powers that be and holding fast in their intent to take over Copenhagen, Denmark-based heavy/speed metal quintet STEEL INFERNO return for a fourth full-length having found their knack, a righteous ideal on the previous album. Having gotten their sound, attack and vision right means this latest release need only keep writing killer speed metal songs to stay alive and that is ultimately what ‘Rush of Power‘ does, perfect their ideal of a well-rounded speed kicked heavy metal album. Without a doubt their whole gig is in tribute to a certain spectrum of 80’s heavy metal uncompromised by modernity and/or extremity, and in that sense the throwback they’re rocking here is eerily authentic but… that isn’t the whole point, in fact the main reason to show up for these folks is their ability to writing balls-out, catchy ass speed metal songs.

Steel Inferno formed circa 2014 and their original style was more squarely rooted in the traditional side of heavy metal, building speed beyond their first demo tape (‘Demo 2014‘, 2014) where we’ll find a very different band in terms of original vocalist Karen Christensen whose snarl resembled late 80’s Holy Moses to some degree but via a steady-thrashing trad metal sound a la Hellion, sans the wild vocal inflections that might suggest. By the time they’d put out their first two full-length records with the original line-up it was clear their work had made a not-so subtle transition to circa ’85 era speed metal as the kind of clunky and green sounding roughness of ‘Aesthetics of Decay‘ (2016) gave way to the far more engaged but roughed-up production values of ‘And the Earth Stood Still‘ (2020). You could feel the band aiming for an early Agent Steel or ‘Terror Squad‘-era Artillery type sound, not quite hitting the power metal highs of Liege Lord but whipping a few solid riffs with a decent guitar tone and pulling off barely passable vocal melodies/harmonization. Their sound was solid early Metal Massacre level stuff on the first demo and LP but it sounded like they’d lost it, or just had far less of a budget on that second album.

After on-boarding a new vocalist in the incredibly authentic Chris Rostoff (Slyngel, Caution) and signing to From the Vaults in the process Steel Inferno were able to come quite a bit closer to their goal of early-to-mid 80’s style heavy metal with a bit of speed/thrash metal thrust behind its riffs, something nearby earlier power/thrash metal without any over the top Halford-isms making it into the new singer’s ouevre. When I’d given brief review of their third LP (‘Evil Reign‘, 2022) I believe I’d compared his diction to that of Hallow’s Eve on their second album or Drifter‘s two late 80’s releases where heavier riffs were also a part of their gig. Crank “Breakout” from that album and you’ll get what I mean right away. The main reason I’m heading into this fourth LP with high expectations is for the sake of having loved their straight forward, kinda heavier take on heavy /speed metal action circa the mid 80’s, getting the right level of immersion and definitely wanting more of it. What they’re promising on paper is a grip of songs that go for more speed, more complex authorship and without losing their sense of classic heavy metal melody.

In the process of taking a closer look at ‘Rush of Power’ I’d wheeled through Steel Inferno’s discography pretty quickly to start, once again finding myself stuck on the leap that ‘Evil Reign‘ was a couple years back and really what it’d all boiled down to was these folks can write a song. Not necessarily in the sweet heavy rock sense but songs which are catchy, pieces which find their chorus and statement in a true heavy metal sense and punch it out with a certain level of command that only a post-NWOBHM era giving way to thrash metal mania could’ve spawned. Think of the more power metal focused records from Combat Records around that time via ‘Skeptics Apocalypse‘ and Helstar‘s ‘Remnants of War‘, even those weren’t necessarily hook-filled but rather each offered a rush, put on a show, and I fee like these folks do well to work deep in the dry-rotted bones of the past to find their own punching weight. At ~35 minutes in length and nine songs they’ve certainly packed something notable or outright memorable into each of these songs and their experience shows as they’ve iterated on their work in 2022 with a bit more speed.

You’ll feel the heat coming from their jets as Steel Inferno‘s dual guitar attack directs our kick into opener “The Abyss” as they’ve done well to get right to it with a four minute pusher, a simple statement built around a riff that is pure momentum but leaves room for Rostoff to shriek and sound off on the way in. We find our first ride into the belly of the beast with “Cut Down by the Chainsaw” with its scrabbly, darting riff built upon at a faster stomp recalling ‘Hail to England‘ as much as it does ‘Ample Destruction‘ depending on the turn taken. Catchy as some of those opening songs were I’d overall begin to an early German power/speed metal tinge to some of their arrangements this time around and parts of “Hunt the Rush” felt like a detour in that regard. Fans of 80’s heavy metal, speed/thrash metal and the underground takeover mid-decade will appreciate the niche served in the moment, at least in terms of delivering speed and energy without “modernizing” those notions with the excesses of extreme metal adjacent. This is stubbornly ‘old school’ speed metal and, again, they can still write a memorable song but we’ll find more of them mid-album rather than up front.

The godlike streak that runs from “Power Games” and “Electrocuter” through “Cathedral Run” best showcases how much vocalist Rostoff functions as a frontman, a bold personality who can carry himself next to attention grabbing mean-and-melodic guitar work and still lead each tune. A song like “Power Games” is practically built to raise a fist to with its repeated calls for “Power!” and its sprinting-speed shriek and rattle attack, from my point of view it is probably the biggest standout on ‘Rush of Power‘ in terms of representing the full transformation of Steel Inferno over the years still translating the early Bay Area/Los Angeles dust up via European conduits. “Cathedral Run” is as close as we get to a metal ballad here with its brief introduction and its Metal Church-esque rise toward the chorus/main riff. This is where I’d been most in the pocket as a listener, appreciating the tact of each song in terms of both the guitar work and the overall presentation, not to mention the general variety of expression available to the vocalist.

Rather than folding up their chairs and jamming out with a few clunkers nearby the end of the album Steel Inferno actually kick up more speed in approach of the end of the full listen with “The Blitz” and “Attack“, both clearly built to roar with energy. Again, in context of the full listen they’ve been on a roll for about five tracks in a row at that point and a song like “Attack” is kind of the nuke at the end, an appreciable boost of speed and vigor which now characterizes the band’s approach at this point; Does it all hit that hard? I would say that “Hunt the Rush” and “Electrocuter” aren’t outright memorable but rather each keeps the momentum going, helping to create the overall shape of the full listen. The trade-off I’d ultimately see between ‘Evil Reign‘ and this album is that we get a more complete character of the band showcased here whereas there were a couple of catchier, more immediate songs on the prior album.

Granted, the thrill of this type of music today is probably limited to those who appreciate modernized authenticity and specific to folks who’ve some studied love and history with heavy/speed metal of a certain era. The main point I’d make here is that these folks have managed catchy and/or memorable songs which aren’t too directly referential. It feels like Steel Inferno have built a serious ouevre between this album and the one directly prior. They’ve the right spirit, attack and of course the sound of this album is a prime emulation of that mid-80’s adrenaline with a big personality delivered up front. I could see this album being viewed as just another ‘retro’ record to some and a genuine article, a fresh addition to the craft for others and I think that’ll depend on how much attention is given to the detail at hand per the listener. In my case I think they’ve struck a second vein of classics-minded gold here and it’d been a damned pleasure to sit with this album every time I put it on. A high recommendation.

https://steelinferno.bandcamp.com/album/rush-of-power

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