Book of the Dead

“Book Of The Dead” was my first experience with Steel Prophet’s traditionally oriented approach to power metal. During that time my whole paradigm largely revolved around non-extreme forms of metal that were rooted in the 80s, with bands like Dio and Iron Maiden taking up the lion’s share of my time. It was for this reason that this album carried such a heavy appeal and still strikes me with about the same intensity level as “The Last In Line” did when I heard it during my high school days. It draws out that same sense of majesty and triumph, despite largely delving into lyrical subjects that tend to deal more with the harsh realities of human society and experience. But what it lacks in extravagant poetic metaphors and nods to major works of fiction, it more than makes up for in the musical department.

As a whole, this is both the most and least progressive of this band’s impressive body of work. How this dichotomy works in practice is actually quite simple, as they make very obvious references to the strongest points in metal history, and translate them into a format that is more in line with the practices of 2001. The songs tend to be up tempo, and even when they tend to hang around the middle area speed rise, there is a very large emphasis on memorable ideas. The riff work tends to work its way back and forth repetitive harmonic ideas in line with mid to late 80s Iron Maiden, particularly during the transitional era of “Powerslave” and “Somewhere In Time”, and the crunchy rock infused ones that Vivian Campbell put into Dio’s first 3 studio works. The bass work tends to be fairly independent and active, though not overtly showy, while the drums pretty much keeps things steady and does get into overt double bass mayhem the way many European bands will.

The most unique feats of this album is the pacing, as most of the full length songs tend to be epic in character though compact in scope, and are broken up into chunks by brief instrumental works. The real stand out songs on here are the catchy as hell, sing along friendly anthem “When Six Was Nine” and the vintage mid 80s Maiden dose of speed metal “Escaped”, both of which really bring the classic mid 80s metal influences to the forefront, but in much more of a softened and melodic fashion than the crunchier, eviler sounding character of the faster USPM bands. “Burning Into Blackness” is also a real grower, and showcases how a ballad can be both depressive yet hit hard and lock itself into one’s memory retention, while making some nods to Ronnie Dio era Rainbow. And the closing song “Anger Seething” actually goes for an almost perfect blending of the band’s USPM style and the crunchy grooving style of early Dio, particularly that of “Straight Through The Heart” and “Invisible”, with an equally passionate and rough edged vocal delivery on Rick Mythiasin’s part.

Of all of Steep Prophet’s offerings, this is the best know, and for good reason too. This is something that crosses pretty much every boundary between the various forms of earlier heavy metal before the practices of Motorhead and Venom became refined and concentrated into what we now know as extreme metal. It’s just as easy to see a fan of Stratovarius liking this album as it would be for someone who is an old school NWOBHM junkie or a fan of Dio era Black Sabbath. It’s much more wicked and aggressive than what is commonplace in German and Scandinavian bands, but it’s musically very compatible with the formulaic, hook driven approach that is common to those bands. To sum it all up, it’s an absolutely essential purchase that should be gotten, even if it means not exploring the other great works that this bands has done.