Agent Steel is a Los Angeles based Thrash Metal and Power Metal group that was founded in 1984 by vocalist John Cyriis and drummer Chuck Profus. They are notable for their hot-blooded solos and science fiction based themes mixed with social commentary. During their original run, they released two albums (Skeptics Apocalypse and Unstoppable Force) and an EP (Mad Locust Rising). Sadly, after only four years, John Cyriis disbanded Agent Steel and left the music industry entirely for a short time after becoming disenfranchised with the metal community.
Each member continued on to pursue other projects, but in 1999, Agent Steel was revived, this time with Bassist Karlos Medina (who was in Evil Dead and Terror prior) and Bruce Hall, releasing three albums between 1999 and 2007.
In 2010, Bruce Hall left Agent Steel due to loss of interest. Not long after this, original vocalist John Cyriis was confirmed to return to Agent Steel to tour. In the same announcement, the band confirmed that they were well at work on writing new material. Despite this, there hasn't been a new Agent Steel release since 2007's Alienigma.
Known for a time as Order of the Illuminati (sharing the name of their fourth album) due to copyright issues between the current band at the time and John Cyriis. It was a short lived name change.
Albums:
- Skeptics Apocalypse (1985)
- Mad Locust Risisng (EP) (1986)
- Unstoppable Force (1987)
- Omega Conspiracy (1999)
- Order of the Illuminati (2003)
- Alienigma (2007)
The group's current lineup consists of:
- John Cyriis - Vocals, Cofounder
- Juan Garcia - Guitar
- Bernie Versailles - Guitar
- Robert Cardenas - Bass
- Rigo Amezcua - Drums
Former members include:
- Chuck Profus - Drums, Cofounder
- Bruce Hall - Vocals
- Mark Marshall - Guitar
- Bill Simmons - Guitar
- Kurt Kilfelt - Guitar
- James Murphy - Guitar
- Brett Reigal - Guitar
- J. Weslord - Guitar
- Karlos Medina - Bass
- George Robb - Bass
- Michael Zaptuli - Bass
- Richard Baterman - Bass
He's coming to town! He is - THE TROPER! He will hunt you down! He is - THE TROPER!:
- Arc Word: Steel (it's in the name of their band)
- Cover Version: The 1986 EP Mad Locust Rising has one of "The Ripper" by Judas Priest.
- Another cover they have under their belt is "Hole In the Sky" by none other than Black Sabbath
- Cloudcuckoolander: John Cyriis is a special, special boy. According to people who know him, he actually whleheartedly believes in about 90% of the UFO stuff that the band is singing about. Also when he was singing for Stellar Seed he would complain about seeing strange colors in the studio, which could communicate with him as if they where somehow intelligent beings.
- Darker and Edgier: This started with their revival album, Omega Conspiracy, when they started writing their lyrics more as social commentary than science fiction, but it went into full stride with Order of the Illuminati, when they started to ditch their Power Metal style in favor of a more classic metal sound mixed with Thrash Metal.
- Heavy Mithril: Much more prevalent in their earlier albums. Unlike most power metal or proto-power metal bands at the time though, their lyrics were inspired more from science fiction themes such as aliens and government conspiracies.
- Hot-Blooded: For an 80's thrash metal band, a lot of their earlier songs are surprisingly empowering. It helps that they were technically also a Power Metal group.
- "Never Surrender" (as shown in the quote above) is the absolute epitome of this
- This is subverted with their later work, which sounds much more cynical.
- Power Metal: A lot of their earlier songs count as this, but as of Order of the Illuminati, they've taken a more traditional sounding Thrash Metal Direction
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Traveller", from Unstoppable Force.
- Thrash Metal: They've always counted as this, but the genre became much more of the focus with Order of the Illuminati.
