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STEEL ARCTUS
Dreamruler

No Remorse (2025)
Rating: 7.5/10

With their third album full-length album in five years, Greek metal fantasists Steel Arctus dazzle the eyes with some truly striking cover art while the ears are frazzled by a Savatage-esque tirade of epic, snarling metal. I’m happy to twin these dudes with fellow Greeks Darklon, although on Dreamruler the production is a bit more clinical resulting in the rhythms being mechanical slaps at times.

Less scorched than Darklon but as equally driven and epic, Steel Arctus rely on the more earthy vocalisations of head honcho Tasos Lazaris (White Wizzard). His bellows are still versatile as behind him the clan resort to the sort of rumbles I appreciated first time round between Judas Priest and Savatage. Basically, you know what’s coming as ‘Cry For Revenge’ leads us into the cauldron, stirred steadily by a colossal metallic utensil before the leaks towards an Ice Age-styled potion of borderline thrash.

As ‘Defender Of Steel’, ‘Fate Of The Beast’, ‘Fires Of Death’ and ‘Riding Through The Night’ fan the fireside flames, one cannot help but become enriched by an all encompassing warmth of head-banging nostalgia. Dripping with melodic flamboyance and with swords raised to the heavens, the joyful and triumphant axe work smoulders between sizzling up-tempo snarling and more expansive epic sprawling. Even so, Dreamruler remains tight and concise, the songs refusing to overstay their welcome and delivered with a potent panache that Virgin Steele would have been proud of in their heyday. The imagination of the listener is constantly stirred, particularly with the title track and its layers of wistful energy.

There does remain that mechanical blemish, often affecting the drum sound which results in a clinical click rather than a warmer punch. Even so, there’s a lot of epic metal to savour here and although it’s slightly less cosy than Darklon’s latest (Mind Reaper), it’s still a solid pile of steel.

Neil Arnold

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