“Seeing a Fifth Angel promo surface in 2023 comes as quite a nostalgic surprise for Elder Steel. As a metal-loving teen, I stumbled upon their 86 debut while on a treasure hunt at the legendary Slipped Disc record shop in Valley Stream, New York. I knew nothing of them but bought it based on the cool cover and badass song titles. Turns out it was a wise choice as it’s a smoke show of classic metal anthems in the vein of Crimson Glory and Warrior. Their 89 follow-up was also fun but moved in an unsettlingly Dokken-adjacent hair/glam direction. And just like that, they closed up shop. Somehow I missed that they reformed and dropped a new album in 2018, but here we are in 2023 and they’ve crafted a conceptual DOUBLE goddamn ALBUM!” How many angels can fit on a double album?
