Italy-born, UK-based band Slave Steel offer up a thrilling and thought-provoking brand of thrash and death metal that they describe as “obscure, intense and cathartic.”
The band started in Rome when guitarist Daniele Manganaro and Riccardo Priori, who’ve known each other since childhood, were teenagers. They brought in Pil Nazar on vocals a few years later and added Marco Agosta on bass when they relocated to London.
And describing the sound they’ve honed since, they told us: “Genre labels always put you in a box but the wording helps to give at least a hint. Thrash and Death Metal are definitely rooted in our sound but we have layered it deeply with melodic and rhythmic influences which are taken elsewhere. Surely we are not big fans of nostalgic revivals and, in fact, everything different or new that we find inspiring and interesting, we like to integrate into our sound palette. We could say it’s our own special recipe to create a modern, up-to-date and unique type of extreme metal.”
Our first taste of that is their most recent single Wake Up The Atom, which was released earlier this month. The track opens up with an interesting rhythmic sound and a building chugging guitar, then explodes into life with a big scream, driving drums and a cool stabbing riff. The riff continues and expands as gruff vocals take over, eventually dropping into low-tuned chugging guitars under big cries of “Naive fear, blind ignorance, Judgement call, Planet kill, rude arrogance, Progress sake: deliverance.” The more expansive returns alongside big guttural vocals, setting up a powerful conclusion. Check it out in the video below:
That single is the opening track from Slave Steel’s upcoming album In Fieri (which means In Progress), which is released on 15 September. The album explores the concept of the butterfly effect, delves into the inherent human drive to evolve, and weighs the consequences of every choice made along the way. It also marks the band’s signing with purveyor of cutting-edge metal promotion Wormholedeath Records.
On the album, they told us: “In Fieri will be the first full-length album with this consolidated lineup and sound. It will also be the first album as a band signed with Wormholedeath Records, which means it will be physically distributed worldwide. Last but not least, we have worked on it intensely and in a totally different way from previous releases, evolving our creating process day by day.
“For all these reasons we are beyond excited and literally counting the days before fans will start listening to the first single and all the other songs after it. They should expect really original material injected with a crushing sound and a unique identity.”
To get more of a taste for what’s to come from the album, we firmly recommend checking out their 2021 EP Dream of Decadence. The EP compiles their previous singles like Shut, the hard-hitting Blessed Is The Mass and a personal favourite in the superbly vicious Ogre Cage, which you can check out below:
The Slave Steel sound is inspired by a wide range of bands for different peculiarities – but what they most want to know is the influences you recognise in their music.
And on what inspires them to write music, they tell us: “Inspiration can be unpredictable and come from all kinds of places, even from an impromptu jam or chat. But sometimes you have to make it happen, and in those cases our main source of inspiration are the harsh contradictions we observe within ourselves and discuss. That very often just reflects the conflicts we all deal with out there as human beings on this planet.”
Slave Steel’s debut album In Fieri is out on 15 September, when they’ll also be publishing video clips for the new songs. An exciting step for Slave Steel sees them open up for Sepultura at WayTooFar Rock Festival in Romania, where they’ll play most of the new material. They’ll also be hosting a release party in London in October with many more shows to follow through the rest of the year and into 2024.
And the band adds: “Our music is like Pandora’s box and we strive to make it only a carrier for much more. We see it as the genesis and container of other stuff filling it, fueling it and enriching it. From video clips to artworks and lyrics, everything is waved together to share a message with people… we can’t say more, check us out asap!”
You can follow Slave Steel on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Soundcloud and YouTube.
Listen to Slave Steel on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Core and GigRadar Metal
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