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artist: Agent Steel
title: Alienigma
year: 2007
genre: Thrash Metal
type: Album
label: Mascot Records
language: English
rel. date: 2007-08-31
source: WEB/MP3
quality: CBR 320kbps / 44.1 kHz / Joint Stereo
runtime: 00:53:01
size: 132.28MB
rip date: 2025-11-23
source url: https://www.deezer.com/album/279628812
tracklist:
1. Fashioned from Dust 4:44
2. Wash the Planet Clean 5:25
3. Hail to the Chief 6:37
4. Liberty Lying Bleeding 4:59
5. Hybridized 6:06
6. Extinct 3:53
7. Wormwood 6:08
8. W.P.D. (World Pandemic Destruction) 5:23
9. Tiamats Fall 5:37
10. Lamb to the Slaughter 4:09
release notes:
Formed in Los Angeles in 1984, Agent Steel combined speed with John
Cyriis' outstanding vocal skills and a subject matter that revolved
around UFOs and conspiracy theories. Cyriis had briefly been a member of
Megadeth before forming Agent Steel.
After releasing the classic albums 'Skeptics Apocalypse' in 1985 and
'Unstoppable Force' in 1987, the band split in 1988 but reunited in 2021
with Cyriis for 'No Other Godz Before Me'.
Agent Steel are one of those criminally overlooked bands of the
Eighties, defining the genre of speed metal with their classics Skeptics
Apocalypse (1985) and Unstoppable Force (1987). Their high adrenaline
metal was marked by John Cyriis siren-like vocals, weird new age /
science fiction lyrics, probably influenced by Cyriis' more than just a
little peculiar personality and the guitar tandem of Juan Garcia and
Bernie Versailles. When the expected fame didn't come, the band vanished
in the late Eighties, with Garcia having moderate success with his new
band Evildead, and Versailles becoming a sidekick of Ray Alder, making
guest appearances in Fates Warning and later joining forces with Alder
in Engine and more recently Redemption.
1999 saw the return of Agent Steel, with Bruce Hall replaying John
Cyriis on the microphone, and since then, the band released every four
years a new longplayer on a different label, which probably didn't help
making their reunion well known in the outside world. Hall is no Cyriis
of course, his voice will never match his predecessor's high range, but
Alienigma is already his third album with the band and therefore even
old time fans should accept this new instance of Agent Steel, which is
still defined by the virtuoso guitar attacks of Garcia and Versailles,
one of the leading guitar two-pieces in the heavy metal world.
Alienigma was my first contact with Agent Steel since their Eighties
period, and I admit I had my initial difficulties. Their sound has
become harder over the years, Hall is a more powerful vocalist, and they
do sound different from their early years. But repeated listening
reveals that their new album has its very definitive charm. The lyrics
are still about bizarre alien invasion themes, and the songs are
moderately long speed thrash metal gems that not many bands, old and
young, can come up with today. Although I miss standout tracks, the
entire fifty-three minutes are entertaining high octane heavy metal that
spoil us with impeccable guitar solos à gogo, powerful vocals that at
times even aim at higher notes and a rhythm section that provides a
solid backdrop for this speed metal inferno.
The lyrics are a bit silly after all, considering that we are in the
presence of grown men, but Agent Steel are a band that proves without a
doubt that they are more than just a bunch of people who want to cash in
on their legacy. Alienigma is a convincing statement that should find
its audience among the fans of classic speed, thrash and power metal.