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AGENT STEEL - Unstoppable Force (12" LP)

United States | Thrash/Power/Speed
Price Range:   $17.25 - $24.99
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Specially mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel/ Temple of Disharmony, 100% original sound, no remaster!

After a vicious speed metal attack on Agent Steel's debut album "Skeptics Apocalypse" (1985), John Cyriis (v.), Juan Garcia (g.), Bernie Versailles (g.), Mike Zaputil (b.) and Chuck Profus (dr.) slowed things down a little bit on their sophomore release "Unstoppable Force" two years later, without losing a single bit of heaviness. Most strinking was the softer and cleaner vocal style by John Cyriis. If it had been up to Cyriis, the vocals on "Unstoppable Force" would have sounded even more different, as guitarist Juan Garcia later recalled in an interview with metal magazine metal-rules.com: "We were recording the "Unstoppable Force" record at Morissound studios in Tampa and on an off day, I went to a record store and bought the new Metallica "Master Of Puppets" which I thought was the best thing I had ever heard at the time. Cyriis picked up the "Rage for Order" record by Queensryche and got totally influenced by Geoff Tate to the point that he wanted to start all over on the vocal tracks and sound exactly like Geoff Tate. And at this time we were half way done with the vocals! Combat records freaked out and sent a representative down to Morrisound to keep an eye on John because he was starting to powerplay all kinds of scenarios arisen! I had to convince Cyriis to keep an aggressive approach vocally somewhat. Although I must admit John did a fantastic job with the vocals on the album."

Due to permanent conflicts within the band, Agent Steel disbanded shortly after the release of "Unstoppable Force". Drummer Chuck Profus later told German Rock Hard Magazine his view: "The ending of Agent Steel was really unfortunate. John Cyriis and I moved to Florida in 1987. Juan Garcia, Bernie Versailles and Mike Zaputil were really fed up with John and moving in general and stayed at the West Coast. John and I tried to keep going with several different line-ups, after the end of Agent Steel under the names of Malfeitor and Pontius Prophet. But John was really off his rocker and had huge personal problems. Things went bad on the management and label side, so we eventually left it be." Guitarist Bernie Versaille confirmed this to metal-rules.com: "Juan, Mike, and I were not fired. We stayed in L.A. because we thought it was a bad decision to relocate to Florida. Knowing Cyriis, we felt it was just another rash decision on his part. His indecisiveness made us question his logic. By leaving the majority of his band, he in turn fired himself from the real Agent Steel."

Consequently, the ?Unstoppable Force" line-up reformed the band in 1998 without John Cyriis, now with Bruce Hall on vocals, and went on to release three critically acclaimed yet commercially not overly successful albums ("Omega Conspiracy" 1999, "Order of the Illuminati" 2003 and "Alienigma" 2007). The years were more or less overshadowed by legal disputes with Cyriis over the band name that paradoxically mounted in Cyriis' comeback as Agent Steel vocalist after 23 years in 2010. This collaboration, that spawned no new release, was once more malfunctioning and came to a quick end with a show at Sweden Rock 2011 festival after several shameful no-shows by Cyriis. The rest of the band chose to continue playing Agent Steel sets with changing singers (such as Steel Prophet frontman Rick Mythiasin or Jack of all trades James Rivera) under the name ?Masters of Metal" (their debut album "From Worlds Beyond", now with guitarist Versailles on vocals, was released in September 2015), while Cyriis did the same, for example at Headbangers Open Air 2011, under the S.E.T.I. banner.

The re-release of "Unstoppable Force" on High Roller Records is limited to 500 units (150x black vinyl, 350 x ultra clear/yellow splatter vinyl, high gloss 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric inner sleeve, poster) and was specially mastered for vinyl with 100% original sound by Patrick W. Engel (Temple of disharmony studios).

Sebastian Thiel

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