A few weeks ago I was contacted by guitarist Marco Valerio Zangani from Italian Melodic Metal band Steel Seal and asked if I was interested to review their debut album “By The Power Of Thunder” released on Underground Symphony. Well... I checked out their music and I really liked what I heard so I accepted.

As written above... Steel Seal hails from Italy and was formed in 2003 and in 2004 they released a 5 track demo CD that gained the attention of Underground Symphony (among others).

Their debut full-length album “By The Power Of Thunder” contains 9 songs and you can easily describe their music to be a mix of Hard Rock/Melodic Metal and Neo-Classical Metal. Just mix bands like Royal Hunt, Rainbow, Deep Purple and Yngwie Malmsteen and I do think that you have a pretty good idea of their sound and style. At times they even comes close to the Danish band Evil Masquerade... especially on track 3 “Theatre of Pain”.

The songs sound very much the same at the very first listen, but just give it one more spin

or two and you will discover a splendid album filled with catchy melodies that easily could

appeal to fans of the above mentioned bands. The production and musicianship is also top-notch and special guest D.C. Cooper (Silent Force, Royal Hunt) shines on every single track. But I must admit that I’m especially impressed with guitarist Marco Valerio Zangani’s work. His solos are catchy and memorable and takes this album to the next level.

It’s hard for me to name any standard tracks because I like ‘em all, but “Theatre of Pain”,

“Anger Storm” and the awesome “When The Devil Calls” are maybe a tad better than the

rest in my humble opinion. But again... I like ‘em all.

“By The Power Of Thunder” is an album to alienate few and please many, so check it

out now.