Modern Traditional Heavy Metal frankly hasn't really changed the rules of the game, but rather brought in better polished production and more improvisations adding to the overall fun of the drill. STEEL RAISER, another old school Heavy Metal from Italy bring their debut full length "Unstoppable" and frankly they tick most of the boxes for me here.

The album hits your face right from the first song "Inexorable" and it perfectly exhibits what the seasoned musicians are capable of; just the perfect old school Power Metal, with Speed Metal style riffs, just think about it for a moment! Combining solos and Speed Metal riffs, topping with the unheard screaming style of Alfonso Giordano, the music really stands out and the polished production really doesn't harm one bit. Just like the next song "Decapitator", almost every song here is an anthem in itself, and really makes you think when was the last time a Power Metal band hit so hard and still maintained so much beauty in every riff! I have been listening to this record for nearly a week and I have to tell it still hasn't bored me one bit, and in fact as I write this review, I'm actually more in this album to like. Surely Alfonso Giordano has some of the most insane vocal chords the Metal worlds has seen in a long time, some of those screams are actually longer than the legendary Dio or Bruce Dickenson's  and no, I am not over exaggerating. At first I thought the long screams were a little over done, but no they perfectly blend in with the music. The drums have constant tempo to it maintaining momentum in songs like "Fast as the light" which is quite a different song than what I assumed from the song name. There are shades of ACCEPT, DIO, JUDAS PRIEST, but all in all STEEL RAISER manages to create their own unique sound easily identifiable and also easy on the ears for the old school connoisseurs. The opening riffs of "Scent of madness" and "Dreaming of you" really can captivate any hardened Metal fan giving multiple eargasms and loads of nostalgia. The title track "Unstoppable" is pretty cool, but somehow gives you a slightly monotonous feel, but definitely not a bad song. "Mole Breaker" brings in some unforgettable juicy riffs which has been one of the hallmarks of this album. "The last tears" brings more variety to the table with its symphonic sound and melodies, not really what you would expect in a Heavy or Speed Metal record, but here we got it. The album finishes off with a rather pale song "Scent of Madness" though the  band tries very hard to make it sound like another Epic song, which it individually could have been, but with the context of this album, the band could have done a bit to bring a slightly different sound. But having said that, this is still a great sound for all the right reasons I love this album so much - riffs and vocals.

All in all, STEEL RAISER have hit a sweet spot between Heavy + Speed + Steel Metal with "Unstoppable" , releasing this June 26^th and what we have here is a great piece of art for the 3^rd full length of the Italian veterans into their 10^th anniversary next year. This is a must pick up fans of aforementioned genres, and I must say STEEL RAISER is a band now on my radar for future albums.