What do a grey-bearded man, a machine gun firing on full automatic, a rocking chair, a stack of Marshall amps, a pair of clogs, a barrel on fire, a resonator guitar and a banjo have in common? They all make up the cover image on an album that manages to combine blues, glam, rock, sleaze and hair metal across eleven songs… it also has the brilliant title of Mister Sippi which already endears Sergeant Steel in my mind.
Although the names of the band members belie their Austrian roots [Phil Vanderkill (vocals), Jack Power (guitar), Chuck Boom (guitar), Ben Bateman (keyboards), Ronny Roxx (bass) and Cøsy Cøxx (drums)] their 80s styled rock is decidedly American as, whilst always managing to be original, they conjure up bands such as Cinderella, Bon Jovi and even throw in a bit of theatre via Meatloaf and a few metal edges too.
For their fifth album, excluding a best of, they do mix and match these various styles in an intriguing way. Take opener ‘Down To Mississippi’ which starts dusty but soon hits hard with a catchy as hell riff, a bit of Cinderella bombast and a lovely guitar solo. The next track carefully reorders the words of the title, ‘Please Me Tease Me,’ brings the metal in a Priest-like riff and a crowd-ready chorus Klaus would be proud of. Next up, they go for an acoustic intro that brings Poison to mind before widening it into a Meatloaf mini-opera… ’Mama Didn’t Raise No Fool’ may be weird, but it works. Elsewhere, we get more hair-metal on ‘One Way Ticket To Hell’ – a hint of funk meets metal on the excellent ‘Knights Tale’ with complex time signatures amidst the more standard riffing. ‘Caught In The Web’ surely has a nod to Constrictor-era Alice with a well-structured, layered song of quality. A couple of ballads keep things sane before the ‘I know that melody’ entices the subtle named ‘Rock Your Pants Off’! The final track is the ubiquitous bonus track, the unplugged version of ‘Cry Out Your Heart, Baby!’ taken from the 2013 Men On A Mission album. I prefer the original but this piano-led version still has charm and a lovely guitar interlude to make it worthy, although the kazoo (or paper and comb) doesn’t add a great deal.
For a band that is as good as (and better than many) some ‘successful’ bands, it is a shame Sergeant Steel aren’t more widely known and recognised… this could be the album to achieve that as it is original, despite my comparisons, and very well executed.
Mister Sippi is out on 30th June 2023 via Metalapolis Records.
