Artist: Agent Steel
Label: Combat Records
Release Date: 1985
Rating: 5 Skulls
|
|
Title: Skeptics Apocalypse Artist: Agent Steel Label: Combat Records Release Date: 1985
Rating: 5 Skulls |
|
|
|
||
Reviewed by Death(10/30/02):
"Masters of metal! Agents of Steel!"What ever happened to Jon Cyriis?
Agent Steel was a classic early thrash band that melded high-pitched vocals with some ahem interesting lyrical concepts, all the while belting out a no-holds barred total thrash attack. Those who remember the glass-shattering wail of vocalist Jon Cyriis and neck-snapping thrash assault of Juan Garcia and Co. remember them fondly, despite the fact that the band's historical focus primarily stems from two albums and an EP released in a two-year span from 1985-87. Agent Steel reformed in the late 90's, led by guitarist Bernie Versailles (who joined Agent Steel for their next album, Unstoppable Force) and Skeptics-era band members Chuck Profus on drums and Juan Garcia in the other guitar slot, to produce an album of well-crafted modern underground metal, The Omega Conspiracy (although, sadly, original Agent Steel vocalist Cyriis appears long lost to the ages and has been replaced). Yet it is the first album, Skeptics Apocalypse, that is responsible for the fondest of memories. A classic fusion of thrash and what has become power metal, interspersed with mild early "technical elements" (e.g., "Children of the Sun"), Cyriis, vocals were a strange combination of Halford and Dianno with a ridiculously high, King Diamond style super high note thrown in for emphasis. And they fucking shattered metaphoric glass every time I played them at high volumes. Cyriis crushed, and so did the speed metal attack of the music. For 1985, this was a perfect combination.
If you remember this album at all, you instantly think of the opening track "Agents of Steel." C'mon, you know it: "Masters of metal! Agents of Steel!" You remember. Killer early thrash, right? For me, however, Skeptics Apocalypse was about "144,000 Gone." I remember being a very young little basher back in the mid-eighties and staying up late at night while visiting at my grandmother's house in the Cleveland, Ohio area to tape onto a cassette an overnight metal specialty show that aired every Friday night. I brought the tape back with me to New York and listened to it every day for months.
One track the DJ played that night I remember particularly standing out: '144,000 Gone." Perhaps it was the overproduced (for the time), "trippy," overlapping, whispered vocals that sparked my attention. Perhaps it was the fact that I was going nuts for all things thrash and all things with high-pitched vocals at that time and never had heard anything that combined thrashiness and "good" vocals so expertly before, in my then limited experience (imagine how hard I flipped when I heard the first Sanctuary album a few years later -- by the way, the re-issue packaging of Skeptics claims that Agent Steel originally was to be called Sanctuary but the name was rejected due to its religious implications . . . interesting). Who knows? What I knew at the time was that I liked Queensryche's The Warning and the old Maiden albums but wanted something way heavier, something that crossed that vibe with Slayer's Show No Mercy. For 1985, not too much came closer than Skeptics Apocalypse.
Of course, this discovery set me off on a binge of all things Agent Steel, and I remember being intrigued by the slower groove and moodier vibe of the album that followed, Unstoppable Force. Yet, ultimately, the band never really exceeded Skeptics. Yes, the riffs are simple, real simple by today's standards. Yes, the production is super-underground and very, very "old school" thrash. But listen past the overwashed-in-reverb vocals to killer and "different-sounding" tunes like "Guilty as Charged" and "Back to Reign," or thrashy numbers like "Taken by Force" (look for an early form of this one on the Metal Massacre 4 album as performed by Cyriis' original outfit, Sceptre) or "Evil Eye/Evil Minds" and you'll surely understand why this album was an important step along the way to getting where we are with metal today.
Century Media re-released this album back in 1998 with some amped up (from the sparse original) packaging, hopefully those interested will still be able to find it. The liner notes alone are worth the price of admission, providing a well-documented account of the band and its place in metal during its prominent years. It is a great read. But it still leaves me wondering . . .
What did ever happen to Jon Cyriis?
[- Metal Judgment Home -] [- Email Metal Judgment -]
©1999 Metal Judgment. All rights reserved.