Ah, eighties metal. Fun, fun stuff. Virgin Steele takes all that was good from the eighties metal pool and mixed it up to spit out a great record. They have screechy male vocals, indulgent guitar solos, and hard hitting songs. The styles fluctuate throughout the record, some sounding like Iron Maiden while the next song is thrashy like old school Metallica.
In the first three seconds of the very first song on Virgin Steele's Age of Consent, I thought, "Wow." And not in a bad way, no not at all. I love eighties metal. You're looking at someone who would gladly rip their right arm off to see Motley Crue, or Van Halen in concert. I loved the sound, elements of classic British heavy metal meeting glam metal to make a great, great album.
The thing I can't get over is the vocals. Very Iron Maiden sounding. The levels that DeFeis reaches with his vocals would make Vince Neil turn green round the gills. From low Dio esque growls, to soaring Bruce Dickinson levels, it's just flabbergasting. The whole album was high energy, and made me want to run on top of a tour bus going down a highway at 90 miles per hour. It packs kick you in the face speed with guitars that'll leave you slack jawed. Go ahead, put on "Screaming For Vengeance." Yeah, now go pick up your jaw from the floor that you headbanged off.
I really just cannot say enough how much I loved "Age of Consent." It was fun, and heavy, and fits right in with classic Dio, Iron Maiden, even Aerosmith. This cd didn't leave my headphones for numerous days. I just freakin' loved it, okay?!
From the talented vocalist himself, David DeFeis describes Virgin Steele's sound as, "From a whisper to a scream, barbaric, romantic, bombastic, yet subtle, grandiose, yet earthy. A call, a shout, an invocation to Freedom and the continual awakening to the awareness that every moment of life is lived to its fullest potential. It is a force, a sacred quest which drives Virgin Steele on.“
Couldn't have said it better myself.
--Gorgeous Nightmare
No comments:
Post a Comment