Week 7: Agent Steel - Rager

The artist: Agent Steel easily define themselves as speed metal, especially their first two albums. While many bands who get the term speed metal thrown at them easily fit in thrash (Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer) or power metal (the first few albums for Helloween, Blind Guardian and Running Wild), Agent Steel definitely fit in as speed metal for Skeptics Apocalypse and Unstoppable Force. Agent Steel broke up after the release of Unstoppable Force but they reformed in 1998 with a new vocalist Bruce Hall. He was with the band until last year when he left, thus making a way for John Cyriis' triumphant return. That reason alone gives one person every right to hype up for their next album, even if very little has been said about it so far.

The album: Unstoppable Force is an incredible album with seven extremely fast songs and two ballads. Apart from the ballads to slow the pace, Unstoppable Force defines speed metal so much that if you look up this particular term in a dictionary, you better see this album mentioned. Otherwise, inform the dictionary company of this mistake. Many bands may have had a fistful of speed metal down your throat such as Slayer's Reign in Blood and Blind Guardian's Follow the Blind but Agent Steel manage to do it in a way that makes every song stand out from other

The song: Picking a rather "lovely" song for St. Valentine's Day, Rager is a fast pace number in Unstoppable Force. What makes this song stand out very well is the catchy galloping riff, John Cyriis' unlimited amount of energy he unleashes with his voice and shouting out some badass lyrical lines such as "HAMMERING METAL INTO YOUR HEADS" and "He's coming to town, he is THE RAGER" If that isn't metal, I don't know what is. Rager also contains a fast and melodic solo. Unstoppable Force is full of them but each one always sounds different to others. Agent Steel's lyrics mostly consist of aliens and conspiracy theories so this song about THE RAGER coming from space and hammering metal into your heads fits the song very appropriately, especially when it gives you the vision of a powerful alien terrorizing a city. Again, very appropriate for Valentine's Day.