{"id":73102,"date":"2018-08-23T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=73102"},"modified":"2018-10-01T17:14:23","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:14:23","slug":"album-review-steelballs-thunder-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-steelballs-thunder-strikes-again\/","title":{"rendered":"STEELBALLS – Thunder Strikes Again (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

STEELBALLS
Thunder Strikes Again<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Reverting back to the 80s, we have this Argentinean circus of five who formed in 2013, and released their self-titled EP in 2016. The fact the quintet covered a Helloween track (\u2018Starlight\u2019) on that particular opus kind of says a lot about the sound showcased on this nine-track affair. I\u2019m still not sure if that production is intentional but if one didn\u2019t know this band, then they could be easily mistaken for an act from the murky 80s.<\/p>\n

What you get here is 80s metal worship; from the logo, to the cover art, to the denim to the sound, everything about this is nostalgia, except of course for the fact that mimicry can sometimes be cringeworthy. Thunder Strikes Again<\/em> is most certainly that, but it does have qualities too.<\/p>\n

From the off, we get a Germanic power metal vibe\u2026 A bit strange for a South American act, but one cannot escape the obvious nods to mid-80s Helloween, especially as vocalist J.P. Churruarin bellows and howls amidst images of glinting blades, dented shields and those surging guitar attacks courtesy of axe-wielders Juan Herrera and Paolo Rossi \u2013 who none of you will confuse with the Italian footballer from the 80s!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s anthemic, epic sounding and bridges that gap between Teutonic, chest-pounding bravado and sturdy traditional metal glory. Can\u2019t argue with it, but of course it\u2019s been done a million times before. With that being said, for all of its ascending melodies and macho pouting, Thunder Strikes Again<\/em> sounds rather sterile, a tad forced and yet remains fun as the melodic speed metal chunks are rolled out by the barrow load and fed to the warriors. If, like me, you grew up on heavy doses of Kick Axe, Heavy Load, and a whole host of those European spell-binding legions, then you\u2019re sure as hell gonna lap up this behemoth of sorcery.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Oath\u2019, \u2018Ancient Fire\u2019, \u2018Out In The Streets\u2019, \u2018Farewell\u2019 and the instrumental \u2018Highlands Calling\u2019 couldn\u2019t get more stormy and armoured, but again, hats off to the leads and the stirring grey rhythms conjured up by this party of five. And yes, there are times when I\u2019m bedazzled by the gleaming beacons that transport me right back to the good ol\u2019 days. These guys really know how to sew together memorable riffs, whether they are well measured chug fests or high speed rapid fire passages, and they are delivered with an authenticity \u2013 however sceptical I want to be about it all.<\/p>\n

Steelballs can\u2019t surely take themselves seriously with such a moniker and my concern is that with such a name, people may pass them by. For all of its generic connotations though, this is at times a bloody good listen.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEELBALLSThunder Strikes Again Self-released (2018)Rating: 7\/10 Reverting back to the 80s, we have this Argentinean circus of five who formed in 2013, and released their self-titled EP in 2016. The fact the quintet covered a Helloween track (\u2018Starlight\u2019) on that particular opus kind of says a lot about the sound showcased on this nine-track affair. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-steelballs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73103,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73102\/revisions\/73103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}