Cleveland, Ohio's Amon-Ra kicked around the metal scene for a couple of years in the early 90s with only an album, In the Company of the Gods, and a few demo tracks, to show for their efforts. Pure Steel has resurrected that album, added some bonus material and unleashed it on their Pure Underground sub-label. They should have left it where they found it. This is a band that never went anywhere for a couple of glaring reasons. One, they had no idea whatsoever what kind of band they wanted to be. Tracks like "Graveyard of the Dragon" are Progressive Metal in the vein of Fates Warning, "Cloak and Dagger" borrows (liberally) from Rush's "Red Sector A" and "On the Shore" is the worst TNT song you'll ever hear. Two, the schizophrenic music plays second fiddle to atrocious vocals of singer Dan Mattingly. Who at Pure Steel listened to any of the bonus tracks before they added them to this repackage? I'm guessing no one as they are so horrendously off-key that anyone with even the faintest idea of what in tune sounds like would have chucked them right in the circular file.

Trashing albums isn't something I do lightly but Pure Steel just left themselves and Amon-Ra wide open. In the Company of the Gods is a monumental mess and not worth anyone's time.