Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Agent Steel - Mad Locust Rising (1986)

I have a natural aversion to the vocals of John Cyriis.  It is an affliction that soon starts to ease with repeated listens to Agent Steel releases with him present.  He has range most certainly but is just ridiculous in tone and inflection to the point were it initially grates on me.  That taken into consideration, a 4 track EP (well 3 track if we discount the pointless first track) should be more than acceptable for me.  As it turns out I can quite easily tolerate Mad Locust Rising but this is largely due to the superb musicianship of Juan and Bernie along with the pumping bass of Karlos and the drums of Chuck Profus somehow making their presence known from beneath the murk of the production and mix job on the record which does an absolutely great job of capturing the vibrancy of the tracks whilst retaining that rawness that is by far the most appealing aspect of the EP for me.

The Priest cover is actually really well done and is a track that is particularly well suited to John's vocals and makes me really want to listen to Judas Priest immediately after listening to it.  I will confess to being pleasantly surprised by Mad Locust Rising with my initial dread soon dissipating amidst those rabid riffs and breakneck tempos as they literally swarm (pun intended) over me.  In fact I will go as far as to say that I have very little to argue with here after a few spins have nurtured me into those vocals a bit more.