Steel Prophet - Unseen

*=Staff's pick	Truth* Rainwalker* One Way Out Shattered Apart Among the Damned Bolero Mirror, Mirror, Life after Life* Magenta Blackest of Hearts Martyred Killer's Confession Magenta (Reprise)

Genre	Heavy/Power Metal	Rick Mythiasin	Vocals
Tracks	12	Steve Kachinsky	Guitar
Runningtime	52 Min.	Jim Williams	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Vince Dennis	Bass
Release	29 Jul. 2002	Karl Rosqvist	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Iron Maiden, Queensrÿche

After only a year since their previous recording Book of the Dead the americans of Steel Prophet are back with their new album, Unseen. This will unfortunately for you fans also be the last one with vocalist Rick Mythiasin who left the band even before the album was released.

For you new ones I can say that Steel Prophet is a crossover between Iron Maiden and Queensryche but they don't even come close to former's superiority but comes somewhat closer to the levels of the latter. The vocals and sound sometimes also remind me a bit of Crimson Glory in their old times. Added to this are modern metaltunes with progressive elements combined with a production that is what can be expected from a band contracted by Nuclear Blast. Some interesting sounds, good solos, keys and a few stand-out tracks saves the album from a greater letdown than it could have been.

It starts out in a very good way though, with a straightforward and energetic rhytm but before the end I feel that it lacks a typichal characteristic and a too big a mix of really good tracks with worser ones make Unseen seem a bit too tame. I'm not saying it's totally crap either because none of the tracks can be descibred as bad, but many of them feels like simply just space-fillers and the album as a whole just doesn't have what it really takes.

At the end of the day this felt very anonomous and the title itself is quite a graphic expression since unseen is probably what this album in general will be regarded as in the long run. It passes you by without making any real impression and it definitely won't go down as a metal classic.
I can only advice you to instead spend your money on their previous Book of the Dead and leave this one to the die-hard fans of the band.