Album Review: Steal The City – Road To Nowhere (Self Released)

Steal The City are a young Sheffield group whose melodic yet aggressive songs and ferocious live performances have been turning heads and taking names over the past few years. With such a rich musical heritage, Steal the City’s relentless drive and potent creativity is now realised on their upcoming debut studio album, ‘Road to Nowhere’. Out on September 20th, 2024.

Even on record, you can tell that Steal the City are a lively bunch and that their live shows are likely to be sweaty affairs. Capturing that energy, showcasing their hard rocking magnetism, and delivering catchy banger after catchy banger, Road to Nowhere is a hugely entertaining debut record.

Kicking off with mighty rock composure, Steal the City set the senses aflame with the vigorous Drag Me to Hell and set a high bar already. Although it’s a bar they are more than capable of reaching again and again with passionate efforts like In Ruins, Stand Together, and If You Could See Me Now. The hard rockers delivering plenty of melodic emotion, punchy groove, and anthemic singalongs across these tracks and the album as whole.

It’s an addictive listen, and it’s nice to hear some creative ideas here and there helping the hard rock sound of the band stand out that little more. What could sound dated, after all it’s born out the classic era of hard rock and heavy metal, ends up sounding impressively contemporary because of Steal the City’s use of moodiness and flair. This is an album of anthems to reflect modern times, but from a more triumphant place.

The thrills keep on coming as the album reaches the halfway point and beyond. There’s the heavyweight body shaker that is You Don’t Define Me, the overly dramatic (but lovable) melody of Knight the Unholy, the volatile Timebomb, and the emotive direction that Tomorrow’s Another Day goes in. Steal the City have many sides, and some of them are on show here, much to the delight of all who hear the excellent middle portion of this album.

There’s no drop off as the music reaches its conclusion either. Steal the City have an array of bangers in their arsenal and continue to make their passion and vitality the focal point of their sound with hefty catchiness via Up in Smoke and Adrenaline.

How do you cap it all off? With the title track, a sweet-sounding melody-focused outro that delivers the album’s best harmonised vocals. This side of Steal the City never gets old, but it is the cherry on top of one hell of a satisfying listen overall. With plenty of crossover aspects, tons of accessibility, and a gobsmacking amount of talent, Steal the City are going to be huge.

Steal the City – Road to Nowhere Track Listing:

1. Drag Me to Hell
2. In Ruins
3. Stand Together
4. If You Could See Me Now
5. You Don’t Define Me
6. Knight The Unholy
7. Timebomb
8. Tomorrow’s Another Day
9. Up In Smoke
10. Adrenaline
11. Road To Nowhere

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