Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
The Los Angeles metal band Agent Steel had big ambitions, largely thanks to the outspoken statements of frontman John Cyriss ex-Abattoir who once described himself as the ‘Steven Spielberg of heavy metal’ and believed that he was actually from another planet, and signed his autographs as ‘2011’. The band also had a great name in Agent Steel which was another thing they had going for them and for me personally the word ‘steel’ as an adjective, usually evokes true strength when describing anything and in the case of music it works perfectly with metal. Metal albums like British Steel by Judas Priest or Reinventing the Steel by Pantera are great examples of this name in metal, but despite all this the band would never break out of their initial label as just another speed metal band. The 1980s were constantly about timing for new metal bands and any band in this period that was either thrash or glam had a headstart over the rest of the field, regardless at times on how good they really were. Agent Steel had the talent but backed the wrong horse in speed metal and never got past two initial studio albums and an EP but all were worthwhile releases and worthy of being regarded now as cult metal classics. John Cyriss’ high-pitched vocals can easily be mistaken for Bruce Dickinson but of course Iron Maiden never played anywhere near as fast as Agent Steel. Soundwise on their debut album Skeptics Apocalypse and the following EP Mad Locust Rising the band sound like a warp factor speeded up combo of Iron Maiden meets Judas Priest and they even manage to put out a strong cover of Judas Priest’s “The Ripper” on the second of these releases. Skeptics Apocalypse is a hgih velocity release and gets underway with the sci-fi musings of “The Calling” which is a sub-minute narration track that features a kind of muffled tannoy announcer. The album gets under way proper with the frantic verve of “Agents of Steel” which is beefed up with a pounding percussion section and lets vocalist John Cyriss let rip vocally and the song has a memorable chorus section. “Taken by Force” sounds like a more obscure speed metal outing but compliments the previous track as it should. “Evil Eye/Evil Minds” and “Bleed for the Godz” are two tracks that mix the arcane aspects of the band in with their speed metal sound and might well be the two tracks on the album that typify the band best and the latter is surely one of the best tracks on the album. “Children of the Sun” feels more ponderous than its faster brethren and demonstrates a wider scope within the band and this shift in direction is even more evident on the even superior “144,000 Gone”. The album draws to close with the revved up feel of "Guilty as Charged" and "Back to Reign" works with a slightly slower momentum to it. Agent Steel offered up songs about Sci-fi musings and aliens, which was accompanied by a speed metal sound that was naturally built around its two guitarist, but the thunderous rhythm section of the band really turned out to be a true killer as well. So who would this album really appeal to? Basically to any Iron Maiden type fan, that has wondered what Iron Maiden would sound like if they had adopted a speed metal sound, because let’s face it Agent Steel could really write songs, despite the use in some people's eyes of deep voice overs and cheesy chants at times from the other band members. Overall the album does take some getting used to for the non-anointed out there but once in the rewards are pretty lush.

John Cyriss- Vocals
Juan Garcia- Guitar
Kurt Kilfelt- Guitar
George Robb- Bass
Chuck Profus- Drums

Production- Jay Jones

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