Mandatory Detention

I'd like to start this review off by saying that I'm not a Steel Mage stan and I'm going to be giving my honest opinion. I'm going to be looking at the music and writing itself instead of the production because nobody wants to listen to boring nonsense about mixes. Anyways, in all honesty, this isn't a bad song, I just feel like it's very average. Steel Mage's discography so far has been fairly simple. The songs don't have very complex riffs and the structures are fairly basic. Anyways, enough about their past work, let's get to Mandatory Detention.

The good: Now if you've followed Steel Mage for a while then you'll know that Thomas and Louis have a very core background while Tommy and Jack (Jack still has lots of core influences) are more thrash influenced. I figured one of two things was going to happen. 1. Tommy leaves to start or join a thrash band and Steel Mage becomes more core. 2. They find a way to combine thrash and core. And to my surprise they found a way to mix the two perfectly. Mandatory Detention has the perfect balance of thrashy riffs and grooves and core breakdowns and change-ups. There are also some pretty cool riffs in this song like the Mandatory Detention verse around 3 minutes in and the breakdown with scrapes after it. And the audio clips with the even slower breakdown were great as well. The clean vocal break was very refreshing and I enjoyed it. Louis's vocals have improved a lot. The solos were also great. Tommy is a great guitarist and only proved this further in this song. The breaks before and after the solo I could hear a lot of Evile and Riptide influences. The sheer amount of riffs in this song was astonishing. These kids have a lot of talent.

The bad: Now I want to heavily emphasize that this is all constructive criticism and not me shitting all over the song. But this is a huge step up form The Uprising of Hatred, which I was not a huge fan of. Anyways, the main riff. There are so many banger riffs in this song but the main riff just didn't do it for me. It was a basic metal pattern. I feel like they really fell short on that one because all of the really good riffs are towards the end. The riff right before the first solo I feel they could've also done a lot more. The blast beats during the verse definitely threw me off. Another part that really threw me off was the Mandatory Detention verse. The vocal flow was very odd. I believe if they spent a little more time trying to figure out how to make it fit the flow of the verse they really could've pulled it off. Okay, now I need to talk about the mixing. I know I know it's boring. Shut up, I don't want to hear it. The mix was a lot better this time around. The bass stood out a lot more. My only true complaint there was that Jack's snare was a wee bit too loud. That pretty much wraps up my review.

My advice for the band would be to keep improving and definitely make sure your main riffs are the most attention-grabbing. Good luck with the future, boys!

This release indicates a severe evolution in Steel Mage's writing, compared to their EP, the riffs are much more advanced, the lyrics have substance, the bass differs from the guitars, the drums are still technical, and the beats persist intensely during the entire runtime. Louis actually performs clean singing for the first time, and it was honestly unexpected on my first listen. I love the rhythm section of the title track, the riffs are so infectious, groovy and unrelenting, there are multiple changes that remind me of Gojira of all bands. There are multiple solos in this track, and it's evident that Tommy's playing is only improving. The guitar tone is given some reverb, which gives it a nice touch, and the bass is considerably louder than their debut EP.

There are samples from political speeches scattered throughout the song, which I assume is to give a cynical and sarcastic insight on the British government's containment (or lack thereof) of the coronavirus pandemic, hence the title of the song "Mandatory Detention" I'm not entirely sure what the lyrics are supposed to mean, but I'm guessing that Louis wrote them to portray the darker side of isolation, something which most people have experienced during the most of this year, and honestly it's pretty in-depth "Stay alone with your thoughts, dwelling on your doubts," this subject matter is quite deep and insightful, especially considering the young age of this band. The main riff of Mandatory Detention is currently my favourite Steel Mage riff.

Each section of the song has its purpose, building tension and uncertainty to entice the listener, and the powerful execution of the riffs accomplishes this. The production sounds clear, and both tracks are mixed well. As well as this, the band have seemed to take a more dynamic approach, as the panning is more precise, and every instrument is refined to be cohesive with one another.

Temper is similar to the title track, except it's about half the length, and has a much more blatant message, it's quite a hateful and energetic song, each riff hits hard and the drumming is just all over the place, but in a good way. The lyrics are straightforward; the protagonist is angry at someone, and wants to kill them. Quite a surface-level topic, but musically, the song functions well, and it isn't one you should skip, despite ending very abruptly. Also, the band has downtuned on this EP (to Eb or D standard, I think). I don't think the downtuning was necessary, but I understand that the band wants to branch out and become more ambitious in their musical ideas, which I fully respect.

Overall, this was a great listen, I'd recommend checking out both tracks, but I think you should start with Steel Mage's EP "The Uprising of Hatred" to see how their writing has changed. Great songs guys, keep up the good work.