Artist: Fate’s Hand
Country: Australia
Label: Dying Victim’s Productions
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
Unfortunately I have missed this band’s debut 12” EP that was released back in 2021, otherwise I surely would’ve checked out this first full-length album by Australia’s Fate’s Hand. I do blame this on the overwhelmingly big amount of releases that are fired upon us feeble humans, it is just extremely hard to keep up with everything. Besides, although I truly love Heavy Metal in basically all its forms and guises, I always tend to return to my favourites from the 80’s and I sometimes forget there’s some good new stuff coming out too.
Some of that good contemporary stuff is definitely Fate’s Hand, a threesome that has a rather heavy resume when it comes to, almost, all different sorts of metal. Well, especially vocalist Denny “Denimal” Blake is a real Australian metal veteran with current and previous experience in bands such as Cauldron Black Ram, StarGazer, Mournful Congregation, Misery’s Omen, Martire, Denouncement Pyre and Johnny Touch, just to name a few. But also multi-instrumentalist Joel “Gjöll” Rademaker isn’t quite a rookie with his efforts in Mongrel’s Cross, Consummation and also Runespell.
All that knowledge seems to accumulate into what is Fate’s Hand. That does not mean that this band is a colourful hotchpotch of basically just everything these lads have been doing before. Not quite. But ‘Steel, Fire & Ice’ clearly shows that these musicians are more than just a bunch doing a Heavy Metal record “for fun”. For sure they had fun, but the result is a thoroughly enjoyable record that harkens back to the heydays of Epic Heavy Metal.
The band’s name already gave away something, but the magnificent artwork by Paolo Girardi delivered one of his most epic pieces to accompany this equally epic piece of True Metal. Although there’s bits and pieces of US Metal in here, in the form of Attacker, Brocas Helm, Manilla Road, Manowar and a bit of (very) early Iced Earth, it mainly feels like a European Heavy Metal affair. Not the frivolous Italian sort of Heavy Metal, but rather the slightly less sophisticated kind that was mainly popular in Germany, Portugal and Greece. Throw in some muscular stuff like Ironsword and Battleroar, the epic and doomy vibe of Solstice/Isen Torr, Procession and Doomsword and add some heroic sounding mid-era Bathory and you’ll have a good idea of what Fate’s Hand is about.
Grand and heroic, with triumphant riffs and vocals to match, which here and there sound just a little bit impure for that genuine and authentic flavour. It is definitely the kind of stuff that will make the heart of any True Metal enthusiast beat faster. Needless to say, this comes highly recommended!
