John Cyriis touring as Agent Steel (it’s not going well)

Agent Steel‘s two LPs & one EP from the ’80s — the LA heavy metal band’s only records with original vocalist John Cyriis — are classics in the genre. Just ask Fenriz from Darkthrone who once said of Agent Steel’s 1985 debut Skeptics Apocalypse: “If you don’t like this, you can just give up being metal.” In 2013, Fenriz described a song from Darkthrone’s 2013 album The Underground Resistance as “1985 twice – 1985 Celtic Frost, then 1985 Agent Steel.” As an AllMusic reviewer put it:

Agent Steel’s 1985 debut, Skeptics Apocalypse, represented the state of the art in American speed metal upon its release, and a good indication of what Metallica may have sounded like had they not traded their native Los Angeles for the San Francisco Bay Area two years earlier. In other words, although the album shared perhaps as much as 75 percent of its musical DNA with the rougher style of thrashing that was quickly taking the world by storm, the other 25 percent replaced almost any trace of punk rock’s “filth and fury” with the more considered presentation of British metal gods like Saxon, Judas Priest, and especially post-Paul Di’Anno Iron Maiden — so much so that listeners might understandably think that conspicuously galloping numbers like “Bleed for the Gods” (inspired by Mayan sacrificial rites) and “Back to Reign” were essentially Maiden on methamphetamines, thus forging a bridge between the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the power metal movement about to make its presence known in Continental Europe.

Agent Steel broke up in 1988, but then members reformed without Cyriis — both as Agent Steel and more recently as Masters of Metal — but everybody loves an original vocalist (who apparently has rights to the name), so it’s not too surprising that — despite a reputation for instability through the years and no other original members — Cyriis was able to book a tour this year using the Agent Steel name. (Fun fact: original guitarist Juan Garcia — also of Evildead — has been in Body Count for the past six years.)

Also not surprising, it’s not going so well.

As Cyriis apologized for on April 19, “Spanish/Portuguese and Dutch shows” were cancelled before the tour even began (“This was entirely the promoters decision, so we will work to organise new dates for latter part of 2019.”) At this point, Cyriis still hadn’t even revealed who the other band members would be. People would find out at the first show.

The second date of the tour was scheduled to take place at The Pitcher in Dusseldorf on April 28, but was cancelled shortly after the first show, which took place as part of Germany’s Keep It True fest on April 26. Maybe because at least one member of the band had already quit. Bassist Hein Willekens posted this message to Facebook on the morning of April 28:

Hi all.

Because of my involvement in recent events I felt the need to write a statement about it.

I was the bassplayer at this vexed Agent Steel show on the KEEP IT TRUE Festival in Germany. I was asked to fill in 2,5 days before the gig so I decided to accept the challenge and work my ass off (as many of you know I’m always willing to give a 100% effort) on an instrument I’m not used to play, to learn the songs and prepare for the gig, hoping to honor the legacy of the 80’s and be part of a great experience.

Little did I know it would all spin completely out of control. After building up the equipment with the great help of the stage crew the other musicians, sound engineer and me all waited for almost the same length of time as the audience while we felt the tension rise and the crowd getting justly frustrated.

All I can say is, although as a last minute session musician it’s not my responsibility to apologise, that I am very embarrassed about the whole thing and feel very sorry for the crowd.

I’ve been (and still am) active on guitar in many bands and played many shows through the years, but never have I been in such an extreme situation and I never hope to be in one ever again.

Obviously Agent Steel is a closed chapter for me after this single show, as I believe metal should always be played with passion and dignity.

Take care and please keep celebrating the love for heavy music!

Greetings,
Hein

Things obviously did not go well at Keep It True. As Hein points out, it started with the band going on very late, even after getting a later set time which was a fact the fest were forced to tweet about:

As Blabbermouth also points out, fans were not happy about what ended up being a very short set. Twitter user @eduardoantondon gives his point of view (translated from Spanish by Twitter):

…And now came the fucking shame of the festival. I already knew that John Cyriis with his “Agent Steel” was going to roll, because after having tried to bring us and what happened we oliamos. The guy took two hours to get out delaying everything, and when he finally did just touched 6 Fucking Songs (I wouldn’t be surprised if it was because they don’t know anymore). They did not sound bad, but at this point we were all so up to the fucking cock that the truth is that gave us quite the same.

Not really reading the room, Cyriis posted a photo of the band after the show, with the caption “Germany truly was a phenomenon, but only the very beginning…” If you have some time to kill, there are now 195 Facebook comments that are mostly disagreeing with his positive outlook. This comment by Marco Van Empel does enthusiastically list some positives (and interesting info) though:

HEADBANGERS ZINE, GIGS, RECORDS NEWS! The band ‘AGENT STEEL’ did only two rehearsals, John joined them only a half hour and look how tight they are!! They are fucking brilliant and THEY were ready to burn the Keep It True Festival (Germany) to the ground, unfortunately they failed as a complete band but this video is made to show all the fans, that the musicians from bands like: Tiwanaku, Salems Lott from (USA) and Whipstriker, Apokalyptic Raids, Farscape and Em Ruinas (Brazil) and later also bassplayer Hein (ex-Legion Of The Damned, Splinterbomb, Up The Irons (NL) etc worked their asses off! I was proud to meet these guys, worked with them and was part of this story! Cheers feel free to share & Bleed for the gods! Patchman Spandex Marco

This is the video, allegedly taken at Agent Steel rehearsal, that Marco posted with that comment:

And here is some video from the fest:

Guilty as Charged indeed.

Meanwhile, last night’s show at Bambi Galore in Hamburg was also cancelled, as was the May 4th show in Hamburg. As of this post the May 9th show in Dresden is still being advertised though. Here are all the dates that were announced:

THE ANNOUNCED AGENT STEEL DATES:

April 26th -Keep It True – Lauda-Königshofen – Germany

April 28th -The Pitcher – Dusseldorf
-Germany

May 1st -Bambi Galore – Hamburg -Germany

May 4th -Truckstop Alaska – Gothenburg – Sweden

May 9th – Chemiefabrik -Dresden -Germany

May 11th -Vienna Metal Meeting -Vienna
-Austria

May 11th -Kapu – Linz – Austria

May 12th -Slaughter Club -Milano – Italy

May 15th -Circus Club – Firenze – Italy

May 18th -Courts of Chaos -Avel Dro- France

May 30th – De Redekiel – Maldegem-Belgium

May 31st – De Sorte Huse – Agger – Denmark

June 1st – Metalheadz open air – Ober am Lech -Germany

June 2nd – Goldgrube- Kessel – Germany