Steel Prophet started out in the mid eighties in Middletown, Connecticut with Steve Kachinsky on guitars and Gary Stocking on vocals as the original founders. Drummer Harry Blackwell came on board briefly. The drummer that Harry had borrowed a kit from for an early video, John Tarascio, became the new drummer. Wayne Faircloth was the band's bassist at that time. A little after this Gary Stocking left the line-up, and new vocalist was Dave Brooks, with whom the band recorded the track "In The Dream" for the 'Iron Tyrants, Vol.2' compilation in 1987. In 1988 Steve and John Tarascio moved to Los Angeles, California. Here they came across vocalist Scott Lindsenbard, guitarist Domenic Chavira and bassist Vince Dennis. This line-up didn't last long either, as Nick Mantis soon replaced Scott Lindsenbard. Nick Mantis came from a local band called Ascendence. Steve and Vince caught him at a backyard party in Ontario doing a version of Fates Warning's 'Apparition'. Fates Warning needed a singer at the time, so Steve recommended Nick to Jim Matheos. Steve, Vince, Nick and Bill Metoyer went down to Track Record in Hollywood one night to record a version of 'Quietus' as an audition tape for Fates Warning, who in the end decided on Ray Alder, and Steel Prophet got Nick. This lasted for a while until Nick succumbed to speed addiction and the band decided Domenic's playing was not up to their standards. Jon Paget came in to replace Domenic, and Rick Mythiasin (who was in Pantera for a few days in their post glam, pre thrash phase) was chosen as Nick's successor. This line up quickly released the 'Inner Ascendance' demo in 1990, which received major accolades in Europe, and eventually led to an illegal bootleg of the tape on CD in 1992. About this same time the band parted ways with Jon Paget, and Horacio Colmenares replaced him as guitarist. The band signed a deal with the Foundations 2000 record company, but never did release anything with them. Steel Prophet recorded a ten song pre-production demo for Foundations 2000 on an eight-track tape recorder. This demo eventually became their first official album known as 'The Goddess Principle', which the Art of Music label in Germany picked up and released in 1995.

DARK HALLUCINATIONS (1999) NUCLEAR BLAST (Digi-pack)

I bought this CD after reading good things about it in Scream Magazine. Somehow I thought Steel Prophet were a prog-metal band. That was not the case. 'Dark Hallucinations' sounds like a mix between Agent Steel and Iron Maiden. In other words, classic metal meets speed metal. Heck, even one of Agent Steel's guitarists guests on this album. But although I like the music these guys play, I can't help to get a bit bored by some of the songs. Rick's voice is great, and the musicianship is good, but the songwriting could be a little better. I think the vocal-lines need some improvements. And some of the drum work sounds a bit sloppy. Still, the album impressed me enough to keep buying this bands other releases. My version is a digi-pack, with 2 killer cover-songs. "The Apparition" is a cool rendition of a Fates Warning song, while "Ride The Sky" was originally recorded by Helloween. Five of the songs are the bands adaptation if Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451' book. But to keep the overall flow of the CD going, the chapters are not in the correct order.

Killer tracks: New Life, The Secret, Spectres

MESSIAH (2000) NUCLEAR BLAST (Digi-pack)

Steel Prophet return with a new album, even better than the last one. The speed metal gets toned down a bit, and we get more great heavy metal. The band even flaunts with the obvious Iron Maiden similarities. Just check out the opening track. It's not a cover song, but they did steal both the name and the main riff from the English legends!! Other than that, it's almost strange how my to minor complaints about 'Dark Hallucinations' are not apparent here. The new drummer does a good job, and Rick's vocals are VERY good. Check out "Earth and Sky" and be blown away!

Killer tracks: Messiah, Dawn Of Man, Earth And Sky, Rapture

GENESIS (2000) NUCLEAR BLAST

I love it when bands give us fans something extra. And 'Genesis' can only be described as just that. Featuring their first 'Inner Ascendance' demo for the first time on CD, as well as giving us a compilation of many of the cover-songs this band have recorded, makes out a heck of a gift to the fans. The 6 demo-tracks were recorded in 1990, only a few weeks after Rick joined the band. Most of it were done "live" in the studio, and the legendary Bill Metoyer (aka Gordon Shumway) mixed it. Today it sound a bit dated, but it is still fun to have it to complete the collection. Speed metal with really high pitched vocals was what the band played back then. But later on the band turned more and more into a classic heavy metal band, and their heroes are reflected in what cover-songs they have chosen to record. Classic band such as Judas Priest, Accept, Metallica, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden really says it all. But why on earth did they include a Simple Minds song!?! At least they do all those bands justice with their renditions of these classics.

BOOK OF THE DEAD (2001) NUCLEAR BLAST

Yet another bulls-eye hit from the boys from California! 'Book Of The Dead' manages to surpass all its predecessors, making it my favorite by this band, so far. The opening track is so good, it instantly became a huge favorite song for me. Steel Prophet are now a metal act to reckon with. The album is simply put the pinnacle of this bands sound. It's all here; the speed metal, the hints of prog-metal, the melody, and the crunching heavy power metal. If "When Six Was Nine" doesn't get you into an instant head banging mode, please remove your earplugs!!!

Killer tracks: When Six Was Nine, Escaped, Phobia

UNSEEN (2002) NUCLEAR BLAST (Digi-pack)

Steel Prophet's metal onslaught continues. And they are becoming more and more metal with each release. 'Unseen' could just as well have been released in 1987 (minus the keyboards maybe?). As usual these guys mixed their straight forward power metal with a touch of progressive metal too. And as usual they deliver the goods. I must admit, it took be a bit of getting used to this time. For some reason this seems to be a more personal album, lyrically. Rick delivers a bit more melancholy than before. But have no fear, he sounds as amazing as ever! To bad this was going to be the last album he did with this band. That cannot be in Steel Prophet's favor, as his voice is unique, yet familiar, at the same time. The internal problems the band was facing at the time of recording might also be the reason for the almost sad sound on some of the material, but this is all speculation. Still, this is in my opinion yet another fine release from a great band.

Killer tracks: Truth, Rainwalker, Among The Damned, Martyred

BEWARE (2004) NIGHTMARE (American version w/bonus disc)

Only the bass-player "survived" when Steve parted ways with his entire band after 'Unseen'. Kevin Cafferty is back on drums. Nadir D'Priest is the new vocalist, and he might be known to some from his D'Priest band, or from his time in London. He has a solid voice, in a much lower register then Rick used to operate in. To me he sounds like a mix of Tim 'Ripper' Owens and Ralph Scheepers. 'Beware' is a much darker album than I was expecting. This might come from the downtuned guitars though, rather then the songwriting itself. The album starts off very strong, delivering 4 very good power metal tracks right of the bat. Sadly, the band is sort of loosing me a little after that. "Angels" doesn't even remind me of all that much of Steel Prophet. Don't get me wrong though, this is yet another fine album from these US power metal veterans. It's just not their best one. This Nightmare Records version of this CD comes with a bonus disc. And for a Steel Prophet die-hard, like me, the bonus disc is pretty neat. It's stacked with demos, outtakes and live tracks, even giving us some very early songs, recorded when Nick Mantis was their singer. Some of it is really roughly recorded, but it is still cool to hear.

Killer tracks: Heavenly, Beware, Transfusion Vamp, Leatherette

SHALLOWS OF FOREVER (2007) STEEL LEGACY

In The Dream Sungazer Revenant The Reign Of Christ - instrumental Parthenogenesis Firestarter Eyes Of The Night Dogs Of War Life Death Masters Of Eternity Passage Thru Time Shallows Of Forever Visions Of Force

Line up on 1 (taken from the "Iron Tyrants, Vol. 2" Compilation 1987): Steve Kachinsky - Guitars John "JT" Tarascio - Drums Wayne Faircloth - Bass Dave Brooks - Vocals   Line up on 2-7 (taken from the "Visions Of Force" Demo 1988): Steve Kachinsky - Guitars John "JT" Tarascio - Drums Dominic Chavira - Drums Vince Dennis - Bass Nick Mantis - Vocals

Line up on 8-14 (taken from the "Steel Prophet" Demo 1986): Steve Kachinsky - Guitars John "JT" Tarascio - Drums Wayne Faircloth - Bass Steve Oid - Vocals (aka Dave Brooks?)

I wonder if releases like this occur in the "pop music world", or is this a phenomenon mostly found in the metal circuits? What we have here is a collection of the bands first demos, released on CD for the very first time. These songs were only available on cassette tapes, so you can imagine the sound quality, or the lack thereof, that is. Still, Steel Prophet is one of the bands I have followed for many years, and I want to own this piece of their history too. It's not like I'm ever going to try and hunt down the original cassettes demos, so this will do just nicely for a peak into the origins of this power metal band. The CD opens with a track originally released on a compilation album called 'Iron Tyrants, Vol. 2'. It's the last recording with Dave Brooks as the bands singer. And this is also the song with the best sound quality on this CD. The next 6 tracks are from the 'Visions Of Force' demo, originally released in 1988. Now Nick Mantis is doing the vocals. But when I first listened to these songs I was thinking it was Rick Mythiasin who had joined the fold. They certainly sound very much alike. This demo has acceptable sound quality, but it's still very much a demo! I guess Steel Legacy have somewhat tried to "remaster" it, but only by boosting the levels. In the song "Parthenogenesis" you can hear them pulling the levels up in the middle of the song!  The remaining tracks are from the bands first demo, a self titled thing originally released in late 1986, or early 1987. The liner notes state that one Steve Oid is the vocalist. But the correct should of course be Dave Brooks. Maybe he was using an alias? We're really talking demo quality on these 7 tracks. My guess is that this was recorded on some old stereo (or mono) tape recorder, right there in the bands rehearsal room. If you like your power metal raw, this release is definitely for you. The track listings have been altered for this CD release, but it's still cool to hear the humble beginnings of Steel Prophet. Some of these tracks were later reworked, and rerecorded for subsequent releases. "Dogs of War" was later changed into "The Revenant" ('Visions of Force' demo, 'Into the Void') and "Passage Thru Time" was later rerecorded as "Passage of Time (Amber Leaves...)" for the 'Into the Void' album.

Vince Dennis guest appearances:

Agent Steel - 'Omega Conspiracy'

Related artists:

New Eden, Tourniquet, Redemption, Agent Steel