STEEL PROPHET – Unseen

The American Steel Prophet has not come up with an album for almost six years. However, it does not mean that their older releases will not get renewed closure. Metal Mind Productions/Records started out in 2008 to re-release the early Steel Prophet albums. So far, the last re-release of the Steel Prophet discography is the album under review, Unseen, that was originally released in 2002.

This album, back then, presented Steel Prophet in a rather new light than previous releases as the Book Of The Dead, Messiah and Dark Hallucinations. Here Steel Prophet don’t act just as a Power Metal group, they tried touching other Metal worlds such as Heavy, Progressive and even some elements from Thrash. In comparison to earlier releases prior to this album, Steel Prophet were strong, yet, this one presented them as rather more complex than straightforward to the face.

After a few good chargers as “One Way Out”, “Rainwalker” and “Mirror, Mirror, Life After Life”, Steel Prophet turned the other cheek with a different set of assorted tracks. Their musical showcase showed keyboard effects, uneven song structures, wicked passages and amazing sorts of riffages.

On pleasing tracks such as “Among The Damned”, “Magenta” (an amazing ballad with an awesome vocal setting), “Truth” and “Martyred”, it is a new kind of Steel Prophet. The beast is still heavy and on the move, yet, it has a box of treasures for the taking. These recordings display a well-done crew of players, especially the guitarists, Steve Kachinsky and Jim Williams, and the artistic lead vocalist, Rick Mythiasin. It can be recognized that Steel Prophet, since Unseen, made the way for their unseen talents as a veteran band in the Metal world (well they have been around since 1983, so here is the proof for you).

With the praises and all, Steel Prophet fell rather short with production. Overall, it is nice. However, after hearing their two previous releases, it is disappointing in a way. Even the re-mastering of Metal Mind could not hide the fact that the work done here on the mix, misplaced almost all the depth out of this album. It is as if the bass line was driven away and its presence is not too very recognizable. Steel Prophet had good luck on coming in with great material; yet, production is another thing to worry about.

With the ending notes of the reprise of the “Magenta” track, Unseen has been re-acquainted to Metal fans. Steel Prophet is still acting as an active band, all is left now is a new record.