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It should only take a cursory listen to The 7th Steel, the seventh full-length (see what they did there?) from Palace to realize they are a German Power Metal band. Crunchy riffs, gritty vocals and nary a keyboard lick to be heard are the hallmarks and are present in spades. Vocalist Harald Piller sounds a bit like a cross between Grave Digger's Chris Boltendahl and Mob Rules' Klaus Dirks so that and the whole Power Metal thing make comparisons to those long-running German bands quite easy. I wish I could say there was something particularly special or unique on The 7th Steel but there really isn't. It's just a competently played album featuring decent, if derivative, songwriting and ultimately falls into the "good while it's on but not overly memorable" category.