Conquest of Steel

Conquest of Steel are the sort of band who wear their metal credentials on their sleeves, quite literally through about a few dozen patches on their jean jackets, but also through their lyrics. The common theme on this self-titled debut is simple: hail denim and leather, and hail the gods of heavy metal. It’s immediately obvious that Conquest of Steel are one of the proudest spiritual and musical successors of Ross the Boss-era Manowar. This is refreshing, since almost every other band imitating Manowar these days tries to emulate their more modern, polished and melodic works that are filling stages over on mainland Europe.

These Bradford, England-based musicians have all the dirt and grit in their straight-from-the-pub sound that make this album fun and inspiring like early Iron Maiden and Saxon releases always were. The drumming lacks precision and Dan Durrant’s vocals lack range – the one aspect that separates them from Manowar – but that’s exactly what most underground heavy metal in the early 80s sounded like. There’s so much energy and intensity that the music almost crosses over into speed or even thrash metal territory at times, notably in the songs “Bitch of Steel” and “Metal Witch,” and that’s one reason I could also compare this group to Anvil. If it’s not obvious by now, Conquest of Steel are not even remotely original, but simply very adept at mastering their art form.

The aforementioned “Bitch of Steel” is one of the strongest cuts from this debut full-length. It features one of the most disturbing-but-awesome clichés of 80s heavy metal: the metal dominatrix. Any of those now middle-aged whip-crackers, from Betsy Bitch to the Great Kat, would certainly approve of this song’s tale of being pierced and beaten by Satan’s sadistic concubine. Fetishizing metal is always so brilliantly easy; after all, the leather is already there.

A few other especially powerful cuts include “Only the Devil Can Stop Us Now,” “Hard Rockin’ Steel,” and the self-titled track. That last one in particular stands out for its epic and overwhelmingly emotional delivery, with Durrant lamenting his exile from civilization and vowing revenge. Suffering and bleeding profusely as he battles onward, he beseeches Lucifer to grant him victory, and for the metal gods to forever watch over him and keep him safe. This song highlights Conquest of Steel’s ability to use perfectly-composed vocal lines that march over the chords in the classic North American Power Metal style that has largely been lost in mainstream metal to the European styles that later developed in the genre.

Conquest of Steel manages to remain interesting and exciting all the way through, with unrelenting power. Maybe a couple tracks like “Summoning of the Gods (of War)” and “Can’t Stop the Metal” are merely average, but there’s nothing so subpar as to break the flow of the album. There’s something to be said about metal bands that try to be as metal as they possibly can, and manage to do so without sounding contrived or campy. Conquest of Steel are one of those bands, and the only possible criticism of this album is that there is little originality. Since when was originality a featured attraction in traditional heavy metal, though? Probably not since about 1983, and there’s a good reason for that.

-heavymetalbackwards
originally published on weightoftheunderground.wordpress.com

Conquest of Steel are to heavy metal what independent film is to cinema; pretentious, uninhibited and dearth of restriction. Which when blended in a form easy enough to swallow, this combination can prove both liberating and rewarding. Whether these British metal behemoths fall into that category remains to be decided. Following in the footsteps of Manowar, Majesty and Judas Priest, Conquest of Steel's first release is a heady collection of fast, pulsating heavy metal anthems written by old-school pub metallers for old school pub metallers. Production values aside, this is indeed a sturdy release with some musically strapping tracks - double bass wielding opener and live favourite "Only the Devil Can Stop us Now" for one – but all in all, nothing truly magical.

However, the riffs are there; guitarists DD Danger and Diesel Dave are great axemen, bringing to mind Iron Maiden idols Dave Murray and Adrian Smith on more than one occasion. That, in fact is a pretty good comparison; particularly the "Wrathchild"-like "In Victory or Death", lifting blistering harmonies and twin-solos out of the hat like slutty bunny rabbits. Dan Durrant's vocals are rather weak but his confident approach is commendable nonetheless. Lyrically it's pretty much the loincloth-wearing-mead-swelling patter you'd expect, although the band do seem to have more than a penchant for a certain medieval-dominatrix; check out this scorcher: You are pure ecstasy, love and lust unite, you'll see – when I feel your leather heels walking up and down on me. - Bam!

The production is egregious, and it's pretty evident a click-track was neglected during the recording; but when trying to stick down bangers like "Can't Stop the Metal" and the fabulous "Bitch of Steel", you can't expect them not to increase speed as the metal intensity builds. I mean, isn't that a pub band tradition?

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com