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The 80s-influenced UK heavy rock band bring the synths to the foreground on their brand-new song “Back to Me” – their first new original material since the release of their debut album Steel Heartbeat. The new single showcases a new direction for Shaft of Steel, with more focus on the synthesizers that have been present since their 2014 self-titled EP. The up-tempo, heavy-yet-melodic sound will appeal equally to fans of Work of Art, The Midnight and Iron Maiden.

“Back to Me explores the mind games and power struggles in relationships using a gambling analogy’, explains vocalist Robert Fenning. “Sometimes, you feel like you’re winning, and then the rules of the game change. Maybe you get a bad hand, but you can bluff your way out of trouble. Most of the time, like in the casino, it all comes down to luck!”

“Apparently we’re quite hard to pigeonhole as a band,” says guitarist and producer Alex Markham. “Our first album confused a lot of reviewers, with our trademark sound of metal guitar riffs layered on top of what could loosely be described as AOR or melodic rock – they didn’t know where to put us in their magazines! Whatever you want to call it, that formula worked and we instantly gained a fan base, who totally got where we were coming from.

“We’re not looking to repeat ourselves and we’re now incorporating synthwave into our music. We know a lot of melodic rock fans enjoy the retrowave scene and vice versa, so we hope that anyone who has followed us since the beginning will embrace this new Shaft of Steel sound, which we’re calling ‘metalwave’!”

Credits:

Robert Fenning – Lead vocals

Alex Markham – Guitars and backing vocals

Dominic Swords – Bass and backing vocals

Adam Carruthers – Guitars

Chris Smurthwaite – Keyboards

Michael Levy – Drums

Additional synthesizers by Alex Markham

Music written by Alex Markham

Lyrics written by Robert Fenning

Produced, mixed and mastered by Alex Markham