A dedicated 1980’s sounding Heavy Metal band resplendent with thundering bass lines, duelling, slashing, and shredding guitars, R.U.S.T is hardly a band to get excited about. Nonetheless, their obvious enthusiasm for all things MAIDEN, PRIEST, ACCEPT and SAXON, plus every band you’ll find on the Sentinel Steel website, will endear this lot with more than a few fans of the Traditional Heavy Metal sound.

There’s not one piece of original thinking on their debut long player, "Forged in the Fire of Metal," and being an underground production, the sound is hardly polished, but these guys are giving their all to be fair. There’s some good interlinking guitar playing across the record and a lot of re-hashed riffs and plenty of spirit and bombast. The vocals might not be to everyone’s liking and Tasos Karonias has much to do to better his luminaries, but if you fancy taking a punt on an outside bet for stardom, then R.U.S.T might fill a gap, but this is not essential stuff - far from it.

(Online November 18, 2011)