Sacred Steel - Reborn In Steel (1997)

Power metal loves steel. It is used for swords and suchlike and, of course, it is a kind of metal. So it's inevitable that there will be bands with "Steel" in their names (Steel Attack is another one coming up), and here we have German group Sacred Steel, who have clearly endulged in Manowar with their standing-for-true-metal attitude in the liner notes, as well as various "fuck you" comments to whom they don't like.
Likewise, the record itself has attitude, but not a lot else.  I like the speedy and riffing guitars (I generally don't like black metal, but it does sound a bit like that genre at times), but there's a distinct lack of actual melody through the whole thing, while  Gerrit Mutz has vocals that are more suited to crying out than something like singing. So, I suppose, he fits right in.
Sacred Steel gained a lot of favour early in their career, but I'm afraid they do very little for me at the moment.

**