Review by Daniel for Agent Steel - Unstoppable Force (1987) Review by Daniel for Agent Steel - Unstoppable Force (1987)

Daniel Daniel / October 13, 2022 / 0

I’ve always loved Los Angeles’ speed metal outfit Agent Steel’s 1985 debut album “Skeptics Apocalypse” & it’s been firmly entrenched as one of my favourite speed metal records for many years now so it’s high time I investigated some of the band’s later material, isn’t it? Their 1987 sophomore effort “Unstoppable Force” seemed to be the logical place to start as it’s almost as highly regarded by their fan base & would apparently maintain the speed metal sound of the debut. Let’s see how it fairs in comparison then, shall we?

The production job on “Unstoppable Force” leaves a fair bit to be desired as it’s very raw & quite tinny. This isn’t anything all that unusual for the time however I’m not sure it’s an ideal fit for Agent Steel whose sound is a little more polished than that. The music is certainly very thrashy however & I maintain my position that Agent Steel offer just as much legitimate thrash metal as they do speed metal. It’s just that they also include a few tracks that sit firmly in the classic heavy metal camp so the speed metal tag makes for a happy medium.

There’s a lovely energy to most of the nine tracks on offer with the A side being packed with most of the more aggressive material. The B side is where you’ll see the band slowing things down & adding a bit more melody on a few tracks but I do have to say that I prefer the more up-tempo Agent Steel material over the more traditional heavy metal numbers like “Still Searchin” & “Nothin’ Left” which I find to be a little flat in comparison. In saying that though, closing ballad “Traveler” ends up being one of the album highlights for me along with the thrash-tastic opening title track.

The most notable element of the album though is clearly the vocal contribution of front man John Cyriis whose performance was always going to be polarizing. He displays an over the top theatricality that certainly won’t be for everyone & has bitten off a bit more than he can chew here in my opinion. It's a bit of a shame that John often comes across like a late-night cat fight in the back alley with his pitchy high-pitched squeals & air-raid siren style dive bombs. Thankfully though the instrumental component of the album is excellent with loads of quality riffs & some wonderfully shredding lead solos.

Overall, “Unstoppable Force” makes for an acceptable follow-up to “Skeptics Apocalypse”, if not one that offers the same level of appeal. The production job probably doesn’t help but it’s not really a deterrent either as I’m pretty used to that sort of thing after all these years of indulging in underground metal. If only the producer & his fellow band mates would just have pulled Cyriis into line a bit & told him to tone down the theatrics then we might have had a much stronger product on our hands. As it is though we get a reasonably enjoyable speed metal record that’s unlikely to hit too many best-of lists.

For fans of Helstar, Exciter & Ranger.

Comments (0)