Generation Steel have released Steelmachine, a third album, on CD, on limited coloured vinyl with a signed card, and digitally. It follows The Eagle Will Rise from 2021 and Lionheart from 2023.
This is the first record from the rebuilt line-up, and the names in it are the reason to pay attention. Thilo Herrmann made his debut on Faithful Breath's Skol in 1985 and has played in Risk, Running Wild and Grave Digger since. Mike Stark sings, Fabian Watermann of Mad Max plays bass, and Piet Sielck of Iron Savior produced.
"My aim with this third album was to take things up a notch, develop Generation Steel further and sharpen our profile even more," said Jack the Riffer, who founded the band in Wetzlar in 2019. "I think we've succeeded."
The lyrics are less straightforward than the sleeve suggests. The title track is about current international conflicts, and "Witches Cross" uses the medieval witch burnings as a figure for exclusion and blind fanaticism.
The band go out almost immediately as special guest on the Heavy Metal Mania Tour, which Mystic Prophecy and Iron Savior co-headline. It opens on 13 November in Siegburg and runs through eleven dates to Mannheim on 13 December.