Jo Steel from Ottawa Canada brings us his seventh release “Feel The Steel”. With 6 full length albums and 4 EPS with also numerous singles between 2015 and 2024 certainly a busy guy with lots of material to release. Drawing his influences from the 70's and 80's NWOBHM, classic heavy metal and speed metal. Jo Steel has a tour of Brazil and Chile coming up late January early February. The album was mixed by Jo Steel and Dez D'Outre-Tombe and mastered by Dez D'Outre-Tombe as well.

“Feel The Steel” starts with a synth intro with some heavy drum rhythm which then sets off this galloping Iron Maiden Style melody which sounds pretty good, then the vocals kick in I'm left confused to be honest, although the song is catchy the vocals are so strange, not very powerful, not very good to say the least. ”Venom” starts off very promising again fast tempo like Maiden, the vocals a bit better than the previous track, the songs OK but I'm beginning to wonder is this one of those spoof style albums like Bad News or Spinal Tap? A bit of comedy tribute to Heavy Metal, watching the video for “Feel The Steel” gives me that impression, I don't know what to make of it. ”Memories” sounds really great ,nostalgic very punchy musically, melodic but the vocals are terrible, flat, no oomph about them! ,which is a shame .”Shine Bright” has some nice synths at the beginning of the track, to be fair some great shredding riffs, rhythm, vocally I can hear an improvement ,love the deep bass line, definitely one of the better tracks on the album. ”Life In Waste” has thunderous pounding drums which sound good throughout, classic heavy metal guitar riffs and solo which sounds catchy as far as melody goes. The album ends with “Damnation” the last track has the best vocals on the album, some chugging guitar riffs, with some harmonies making the vocals sound stronger, one of the better tracks on the album.

I did not know quite what to make to this album at all. I could not take it seriously, I just thought it was a parody album, apologies if I'm wrong! Musically there was some great moments and tributes to NWOBHM within the melodies & rhythm, however sometimes they were all over the place, but the vocals just didn't impress me at all. I think the vocals would more suit a punk /new wave band more than a heavy metal band. Also the production was poor in parts drowning out either the vocals or melody. Ice War “Feel The Steel” wasn't my cup of tea to say the least sorry.