Artist: Steel Mill
Title: Green Eyed God
Type: Album
Label: Rise Above Records/Rise Above Relics

Rise Above is a record label that I just continue to admire more and more. As well as at various times releasing albums from such bands as Orange Goblin, The Gates of Slumber, Grand Magus, and Firebird (now there’s a line up I’d pay good money to see live), their subsidiary Rise Above Relics continues to bring back to the masses lost rarities that are normally the sole preserve of in the know musos who can be seen holding court at assorted record fares, nodding sagely as tapes are traded and rare vinyl is exchanged for silly amounts of cash. One of those acts spoken of in such hushed tones is Steel Mill, an early 70’s UK Prog Rock band whose mystique is enhanced by the shear lack of information about them. Even trying to search them out on the internet normally finds you shunted to sites about the US Steel Mill, an act that is pretty much only known as it had a certain Bruce Springsteen as an early member, whilst original vinyl copies of ‘Green Eyed God’ occasionally change hands for silly amounts of cash, even low quality bootleg CDs commanding premium prices on assorted auction sites. With that in mind, Rise Above are to be truly congratulated on the quality of this new re-mastered version of that near mythical album, engineered with the assistance of the remaining members of the band, and packed with a host of rarities, and even a brand new track.

Away from the history, and onto the music. Starting with ‘Blood Runs Deep’ the band combines heavy prog guitar riffs, layered and intertwined with psychedelic saxophone work, immediately reminiscent of King Crimson’s early work, but with a more stripped back and urgent sound, some of that band’s self indulgence being replaced with an urgency that then fades into the mellow and quintessentially English whimsy of the middle section. ‘Summer’s Child’ is an all together more mellow track, playing off the motif of a gentle flute, and evoking a pastoral idyll, with a darker undertone developing in the slightly sinister guitar work. Without a doubt, the highlight of the original album, an album of superlatives, is the 9 minute plus title track ‘Green Eyed God’. Opening with a combination of native American sounding flutes and tribal percussion, the ritualistic lyrics and pagan sound giving way to more urgent guitars and bass, taking the track to far darker and urgent places, a sound and style so redolent of ‘The Doors’ at their mystic best.

Whilst the original album faded out with ‘Har Fleur’, a gentle outro that sounds like it was lifted from the hippy streets of Haight-Ashbury, this new release features no less then nine bonus tracks, culled from the band’s mystery shrouded career. Included are stand alone single ‘Get On The Line’, and a massively foreshortened single release version of ‘Green Eyed God’, pared back from the original 9 minutes plus to a scant 3 minutes 46 seconds, the track seeming to barely get going before being cut down in an undoubted attempt to get radio airplay, and thus losing so much of the impact of the original recording. As well as these mono rarities, are assorted demos, including the positively poppy ‘Super Clean Man’, a track that could easily have come from the pen of Ray Davies with its quirky delivery. Closing this reissue is ‘A Forgotten Future/A Future Past’, a real coup for Rise Above in that it’s a brand new track from the remaining members of the band. Every element of their early recording is there in the interplay of flute, saxophone and guitar, but now with an even heavier guitar riff, the track having a darker undertone, sounding almost as if were recorded live rather then polished to death in an engineer’s computer.

With the exceptional quality throughout, it remains a mystery why Steel Mill didn’t hit the heady heights of such contemporaries as Pink Floyd and Genesis. Once again, thanks to Rise Above for resurrecting this true gem of UK Prog, and bringing it back to the many who deserve to hear it. Who knows, with the BBC’s digital channels regularly showcasing this genre of music with the Prog Rock Britannia series, maybe the band will get the widespread recognition that the promise of this album shows they surely deserved.

http://www.riseaboverecords.com/