Steel Preacher - Route 666

"Route 666" is the self financed demo from Germany's Steel Preacher.

Most of you familiar with my reviews know that I'm a huge fan of German power metal. Steel Preacher fits nicely in what I like to think of as my personal metal niche. This 3-piece rough and tumble act seems hell bent on chasing women, drinking beer, and playing fast heavy metal ala Tankard or Accept. The group really drives home a dirty, bluesy metal sound on the listener. One can almost think of Motorhead at times, only a bit more metal oriented as opposed to punk.

Vocalist Steel Preacher (I'm not kidding!) reminds me of Death SS frontman Steve Sylvester, with a high pitched grainy vocal style on these songs. Of course this is only a demo so those vocals may change on better production, but I like what he is doing with these songs.

Tracks like "Sworn To Fight" and "Route 666" are great German fare, with tons of guitar melody grinding across a mid-paced assault of old school metal. Belgian new wave band Killer comes to mind on some songs like "Metal Till Death", with its down and dirty thrash attack over a tight drum battery courtesy of Hendrick. The band even takes some time to poke fun at metal warriors Manowar with "Story Of Steel".

The band did a great job packaging this album, with a killer album cover and a nice in-lay booklet to go with it. Its really surprising to think of this as a demo, but the band insists that's all it is right now.

Great things are sure to come for Steel Preacher. Hopefully the band can land a decent record deal and we can hear a better produced offering next time. Limb and Remedy, please check these guys out!!

Rock Hard, Die Free.

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