Becoming something great in Metal music, as in all music genres, isn't easy per se, working hard and creating compositions that will knock others down may take time. Nonetheless, the 80s proved that by less than a year bands were able to assemble material worthy enough to become a classic to remember for the time to come may it be IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, SAXON and I can go on and on. STEEL VENGEANCE were never those mentioned icons, back in the 80s or today, but at least they tried like many others that stood in the huge picket line of bands worldwide wishing to become Rockstars or the next thing in line. After leading a successful debut named "Call Off The Dogs", yeah I did review it so you can check it out, it took them nearly less than a year to arrange and release "Second Offense", originally by Black Dragon Records and now remastered by Metal Mind Productions, a whole new album packed with ten more crunchy traditional Metal steely displays. Nonetheless, conjuring their material in such a period of time didn't help them that much. The album might had caught the attention of critics praising it for its influential proceedings, but what can I say, it didn't pinch me and I tried observing it as if I was living the life back then without making comparisons to nowadays' Metal.

STEEL VENGEANCE, as I aforementioned earlier on the debut review, mixed a fine line of Hard N' Heavy, taking RATT and MOTLEY CRUE and running them on the same strip with US Metal kinds of OBSESSION along with British JUDAS PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN. "Second Offense", at a first glance, seemed like a perpetuation of the previous album, but after a while, meaning first two songs, it became like a sort of spawn, or a raw version, of the first three RATT and CRUE albums, a sort of Heavy Metal with a nifty, sensual Glamish features. The guys didn't wear pink, and I don't think that they have ever, but their music sure indicated that they wanted some piece of the action. Fundamentally, "Second Offense" is a sort of a repetition of its own self demonstrating the same type of pattern over and over. I didn't care for the band indulging on basic structures for their songs because that it what traditional Metal is all about, but pardon me for saying but some of the riffs were pretty much identical whether involving the same chords but in different order, same tempo and drumming arrangements, and even a pretty much reoccurring singing melodies, if you can really call it that because for some reason the vocals were just there while not really invigorating anything, and the rhythms.

Sure that there is something classy about "She Moves In The Night", a song with a slight German meets American vibe especially with that cool bass intro the surging rhythm guitars striking a fine main riff,  "Dead Or Alive", one of the album's heaviest songs that caught my attention again with fine riffing and a nice lead fretwork, or "Don't Waste It On Me" that might have set the record for STEEL VENGEANCE's future as a semi RATT's "Out Of The Cellar" kind of track, a tough raw, free loaded tune. However, I found the vocal line to be rather flat, sharing almost no emotion. The high ends sounded terrible and almost a tad out of sync with the music, several of the high pitched attempts seemed too raw ending with raspy cries of anguish. Furthermore, the rest of the tracks, especially "Eyes That Cannot See", which displayed an awful vocal production that I believe was a sort of flanger running with the main vocal channel, "Open The Door" that made me chill, a track that showcased a traditional song with a passage that didn't really belong, and the decent "Useless Information" that presented itself as highly closer in proximity to a RATT track. I am sure that by the old days' standards, it might be noticed as totally unoriginal.

"Second Offense" is far from being a classic. It is a decent album and no more than that. Once again STEEL VENGEANCE displayed that sharp edged crunchy sound that has been the 80s profound trophy, and it is hard not liking it. Yet, too many let downs to call this a success. In short, tasty in some ways but needed more salt.