14.6 C
Athens

Steelover – Glove Me

Published:

Last Updated on 05:56 PM by Giorgos Tsekas

Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
Country: Belgium
Label: Lost Realm Records (Mausoleum Records)
Year: 2022 (1984)

I’m really happy when I discover a new band. I’m double happy when I learn about an old band that wasn’t caught in my antennas. Steelover was a different situation though as I knew them as a name but never heard a single note from them and did t knew how well known or commercial successful they were in the middle 80’s. A month ago I got emailed a link for their new sophomore album that finally is recorded and saw that Lost Realm, one of my fav labels reissued their debut entitled “Glove Me.” Well Steelover were among the pioneers of Belgian Heavy Metal scene in which List Realm is a master in reissuing its gems. The band was founded by guitarists Pat Fréson and Mel Presti and Nico Gardi. The three guys quickly found a drummer in Rudy Lenners, who had already recorded two albums with Scorpions in the 1970s. On Rudy’s recommendation, vocalist Vince Cardillo, who was already in a band and had also recording experience, joined the band. The 70’s inspired Hard Rock that was blended with melodic touches and strong and memorable riffs made their debut a hot release. I don’t know how many expected such a big success in the band or their label but Mausoleum Records saw 400,000 copies sold! Unfortunately their success story became a failure of not a a Heavy Metal tragedy…. Vince left the group and was replaced by Dani Klein. However, a second full length didn’t saw the light of day. Furthermore Mel Presti and Dani Klein founded the group Vaya Con Dios after Steelover . Yes ΤΗΕ Vaya Con Dios the Latin/soul/ethic female fronted band that had a huge success in 1990 with songs hit singles like ‘Puerto Rico’ and ‘Nah Neh Nah’ that had air play everywhere and still have in many radio stations worldwide. Some extra trivia for Vaya Con Dios is that it means in Spanish for “Go with God!”, and that the Belgian music act was famous for its mixing of styles. It was also one of the most successful Belgian music acts ever, having sold more than 10 million albums and more than 3 million singles. With several EPs, Steelover returned to active status in 2016 and as I mentioned before they finally released their second full length. Lost Realm has cut a nice deluxe reissue, which will comprise fully remastered audio, 2 unreleased bonus tracks, a 20-page booklet with detailed band biography, song lyrics and rare photos. Limited to 500 copies. Steelover had a great sound full of party anthems, sing-along choruses, true rocker hymns, catchy rhythms and vocal lines that would bring in mind Leather Leone or Pavlov’s Dog as his voice had this characteristic hermaphroditism hint that was so tempting back in 70’s-80’s. Musically speaking their sound was close to Pretty Maids, Nazareth, and 80’s era KISS and Scorpions. The album features some hit singles as the opener ‘Forever’, ‘Rock Bottle’, ‘Hold Tight’, (my personal favorite) ‘Need The Heat’ and ‘Struck Down’ or even the cover version on CCR’s ‘Hey Tonight’. Extra kudos for the really nice bonus tracks, especially the catchy ‘Reach Out’ .

Related articles

spot_img

Recent articles

spot_img