RISING STEEL – Beyond the Gates of Hell

The previous offering by these French metal freaks, more specifically the loud and crushing Fight Them All (2020), was an entertaining albeit slightly uneven ride through power metal, NWOBHM, and thrash metal. I am pleased to announce that nothing has changed in the outfit’s camp as the latest effort titled Beyond the Gates of Hell contains more of the same and sounds like the logical follow-up to its predecessor from a musical and lyrical point of view.

With its huge and booming sound, the disc serves up some explosive cuts that are riddled with full-throttle riffs and aggressive confidence, which is just the way things out to be in the epic metal realm that these guys inhabit. The material is slightly more varied this time around and also a tad darker, which suits me just fine, and mind-melting juggernauts ala ‘Beast’ and the menacing ‘We Are Free’ are arguably the group’s best and most rewarding compositions to date. The latter in particular is an impressive slab of diverse old-school metal.  

More groove and swagger would have been nice as the record does come across as slightly stiff and rigid to some extent, but again, it certainly is ferocious and heavy as fuck. Overall, this bombastic bad boy conveys a love for all things metal that is charming, and fans of Jag Panzer, Judas Priest, Testament, and Grand Magus ought to spin or stream it a handful of times.