Steelheart

hard rock

Steelheart is a musical group fronted by Croatian-American musician Miljenko Mili Matijevic. The outfit has gone through many line-up shifts since it got started in 1990, yet Mili's powerful voice and multi-octave range has remained the heart and soul of the band. The group's debut album, titled simply 'Steelheart', brought the group strong commercial success yet had them pegged, somewhat unfairly, to the glam metal movement. Since then, Mili and his band-mates have showcased just how broad their influences are and the raw strength of Mili's vocals have been noticed by many critics. Formation and early acclaim (1990-2000) Steelheart had the line-up of Matijevic (vocals), Chris Risola (guitar), Frank DiCostanzo (guitar), James Ward (bass), and John Fowler (drums) when the band's self-titled debut album came out in 1990. Musically, their work featured a style similar to hard rock and pop metal acts of the day, examples being Ratt and Whitesnake, yet the guys scored a coup in working with seminal producer Mark Opitz, who had worked on iconic rock releases such as AC/DC's 'Powerage'. The guys found themselves hitting the big time as the album reached #40 on the Billboard 200 chart, the band's fan-base growing around the world. 'Steelheart' sold 33,000 albums on its first day in Japan alone. Before too long, the album even hit platinum status. In terms of specific songs, the power ballad She's Gone showcased Matijevic's incredible vocal range and hit #1 on several international ...