Steel Chambers offers eleven brand new tracks from Cold Driven. Every track has been fantastically engineered to give the highly polished sound that I would say now is accustom to Cold Driven. After listening to this album I am highly debating if I should make the four hour trek down to Toronto from Kingston to check these guys out live. 

The title track is the first song that starts off Steel Chambers. “Steel Chambers” is a theatrical sounding song. The song starts off a little slow with a soothing deep Cold Driven style sound. One major aspect of the song that stands out to me is the string instruments that plays in the background. The sound of the String instruments really gives the “Steel Chambers” its Theatrical sound. 

“Heavier Than Heaven” follows “Steel Chambers”. This is one my favourable songs off of “Steel Chambers”. The Opening Guitar riff invites your ears right into listening to the song. The riff leads right into the finely polished vocals in the song. The deep sounding drums are truly the backbone to the song. The drums are played livelier in this song than “Steel Chambers”, also the drums and guitars work perfectly together in this song. There is a small twenty second guitar riff that is played around the two minute mark in the song that deserves a mention in this review. The riff is stands out to me because of the speed of the riff, and how the higher tone of the riff really stands out from the rest of the song. The ending of the song finishes off strongly, pretty much imitating the starting strength of the song.

“We Carry On” shows a softer side of Cold Driven. The string bar picking that is played at the start of the song is an instant hook into the song. I can’t skip past the song without listening to the opening riff. The riff is small but it is excellent. A nice added touch to the opening of the song is the added sound of the piano; the piano is also played throughout the song. Another large characteristic additive to the song is the string instruments that are quietly played in the background of the song. Cold Driven also adds their Heavy Metal sound in parts of the song, just to make insure their fans that they haven’t gone soft on them. The song finishes out with the same riff that is played at the start of the song.

“Sweet Lies” to me is the instrumental guitar mix of Rob Zombie and older Metallica. I imagine people will argue with me on that one but these are two bands that first some to my mind when I listen to the song. Even throughout the song Metallica is wildly visible to me. This song would come second in my choice of my three favourite songs off of the album. During the song I find myself not really listening to the lyrics at all and just listening to the instruments instead.

For all instrumental Metal fans this album is a must have, to pick up your copy of Steel Chambers visit their website at www.colddriven.com and www.myspace.com/colddriven

Matt Hartwick
m.hartwick@partyinkingston.com