Album review : RISING STEEL – Legion Of The Grave

Frontiers Music [Release date : 29.08.25]

Third full studio album on the Frontiers’ label from French metallers, Rising Steel, who remain a solid line up. Steel Zard – drums, Tony Steel – guitar, Steff Leadmaster – lead guitar , Stone Warrior – bass, and Emmanuelson – vocals (not their real names).

Hard on the heels of 2022’s Beyond The Gates Of Hell, a dark thread runs through Legion Of The Grave.

No surprise there… it too is embedded in the psyche of old school heavy / thrash metal, and Rising Steel is nothing if not old school. Songs with titles like ‘Venomous’, ‘Messiah Of Death’ and of course, the title track ‘Legion of The Grave’, give the game away.

Still, it’s strangely refreshing to hear heavy metal performed without bells and whistles, without delusions of grandeur, but up to its ears in sharply pointed lyrics, giving voice to the struggles of every day life and living… and beyond.

And when its delivered with, err…venom, channelling the spirit of heavy metal’s past masters, like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Saxon – one part thrash, one part hard rock and one part all-their-own-work, there’s a satisfying ring of authenticity to their music.

For the uninitiated, vocalist Emmanuelson’s sudden leap up the octaves can be off putting, as in the pacey, punchy ‘Betrayer’ and the manic howls of ‘Trapped In A Soul Garden’,

On other tracks, like ‘King Of The Universe’ his mannered vocals, twisted, distorted at times, lift the song, allowing a tuneful chorus to emerge from a melting pot of rough riffs and clattering rhythms.

And behind all the dark notes and the industrial clamour is a battle hardened band, happily trading studio gloss for an authentic, live in the studio sound.

The riff is the thing of course, raw and raucous, transitioning ‘Back Martin’ from hard rock to metal; giving ‘Nightmare’ an unfinished, demo like charm, and building ‘Night Vision’ into a more conventional heavy metal structure, running through some slick gear shifts before slamming the track into a handbrake turn.

And it all works. ***1/2

Review by Brian McGowan

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