I am so excited to be disappointed again.

New album. I've already heard samples (in my head). Several songs start with: "ROUW! Uiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

"I Will Feaiiiiiiiiiiiir No Man… eh … For I Am A GOUWD! … ROUW!"

I'm probably the only one who deems "Visions of Eden" his best album (because it sounds as if it was written on the piano: piano metal, that's something new, isn't it?) and who thinks that "The Black Light Bacchanalia" and "Nocturnes of Hellfire & Damnation" are more interesting than "Invictus" and "The House of Atreus". I actually like his flawed homerecorded one man shows since they are so different from what bands usually put out. They kind of defy the listener to imagine how the tracks would sound in a band context, i.e. there's room for the inclined listener to get creative, dream up stuff and add to the picture.

Don't know if there's much to look forward to after the weird and disappointing "Seven Devils Moonshine" but we'll see.

Lmao. That's exactly what it is going to sound like. He really could stand to work with a full band again in the studio and when writing as it could temper his lack of editing. The 2nd Atreus album was a precursor to the meandery style he got into later on. Placing himself front and center for this new record doesn't give much hope...and neither do those song lengths.

This kinda makes me want to go back to Bacchanalia and Nocturnes... I just remember buying Bacchanalia in college, waiting eagerly and being so fucking confused the first time I listened to it.

Problem with TBLB is that it's rather lifeless for the most part. Production is kinda ehh (although way better than the original VoE sound), DeFeis sounds far too restrained (hah) most of the time, the drums get on my nerves and the guitars aren't really doing most; save for delivering some killer riffs here and there (middle riff of 'Pagan Heart' and the main riff of 'The Orpheus Taboo rule hard).

Take DeFeis' vocal delivery of TBLB (the auto tuned parts are kept to a minimum), add some spice to the production and let Pursino shred and deliver on some songs and you might end up with something decent. I didn't mind the drums of Nocturnes either, but ehh.

Give that these new songs will be pretty long, I just don't think this will end up well. 'A Song of Possession' will be the longest VS song so far.

It will likely not be as good as the 1994-2000 run, DeFeis has proved he will never top that.
However, it can be better than the output of the last decade, which I hope for.

I'm kind of hopeful it will be like Bacchanalia but less moody. Bacchanalia is covered in this shroud of introverted gloomy moodiness but he seemed to have broken out of that shell a little on Nocturnes and Ghost Harvest. So a more extroverted Bacchanalia would be cool.

'Spiritual Warfare' will be out tomorrow.

Reading the lyrics and I'm reminded more of VoE and TBLB than anything else. I'm not expecting much but it can't be worse than Nocturns and Ghost Harvest... right?

Righteous falls death and glory,
Noble Beings gone astray prey!
Virgin cries soulless whispers
There will be no more replies and that’s wise…
Murderous applications credit limit’s been declined
Fight ‘till death cruel enslavement Rage release!!!

I like it haha

So I just listened to the single and safe to say that if you're not a fan of the last few albums you likely won't enjoy this. Pretty much every aspect people dislike about those records is present on the song, from the drums to the keyboards to DeFeis' vocal style. The song itself also doesn't need to be over seven minutes long, it doesn't really merit that runtime. I will say that the section where everything drops out except the piano and he really hams it up vocally is pretty amusing.

You can find a non lyric video of the song already and god damn is it bad. Intro sounds like ghost harvest and musically there are no hooks, hardly any riffs and the whole thing makes the TBBL stuff sound like a masterpiece. Abysmal drums and vocals included!

It’s far less offensive than the last few releases and the insane vocal histrionics of those releases has been relaxed here.
But the electronic drums or drum machine is a blemish that weakens it.

Overall, a bit better than expected.

If that's the best track on the album or an indicator to the quality of the rest of the album then I just dunno if I can be bothered getting it.
Sure he's toned down those shitty squeals and whatnot but that absolutely terrible production and all those layered vocals were doing my head in. It's like he can do all these different vocals but can't decide which one to use so he uses them all, it's fuckin nuts.
I guess it coulda been worse but it shoulda been coulda been so much better.

Also funny how the comment section of the lyric video got disabled after a few minutes. You can guess what people are critical about.

Well said.

If the song had actual production instead of sounding like it was recorded on a shitty laptop and DeFeis didn't sing like a fucking asshole, it would be a solid song.

So between Manowar and Virgin Steele, who do you think has the least amount of self awareness?

Thanks for offering the worst thing I've heard this year. I mean, how can you seriously release something like this with such a back catalog? Isn't he ashamed, at least a little?

So weird. This may be the closest I've come to kinda liking his stuff in a few albums now, but it's just so baffling... like he gets that riff going, then keeps stopping it for the most absurd quiet mellow interludes with the weird vocals and all these effects. I can't say it's uncreative, but it just doesn't really cohere... it feels like about three different songs held together with spit and rubber bands. I just don't know if it has the effect he wanted at all.

This is the same guy who said that if no one would like Nocturnes, he wouldn't care. Way to think about your fans, you know?

At this point it's Virgin Steele, easily. DeFeis is fully in self-parody mode.

It stinks because he's still good at writing melodies. He just has no filter anymore.

Wow...holy shit this is bad. I could barely make it past the first minute mark.
Is that DeFeis climaxing at the beginning there or having a tremendous bowel movement?

it's weird, judging by the later albums you'd think he'd be a raving lunatic but there was a recent interview on Youtube and he seems like a totally normal, cool guy.

Sheesh what the hell did I listen to? Sounds like he got all his equipment form the dollar store. Everything sounds like shit! All a mess. Still can't believe he thinks this garbage will pass through anyone's ear.

I feel like with other musicians to reign him in a bit and also if they used all real instruments and had better production this maybe might not be complete garbage. Unfortunately this just sounds terrible.

Oh boy, here we go again...

What is this 8 bit midi metal mix?

Had to listen to Invictus again because of this. GOD how good they were in the 90s.

Yeah. It's sad to witness their (his?) downfall.

I can almost respect DeFeis for CLEARLY not giving a shit about his fan's opinions though. Unless he's just completely ignorant of them - I reckon he's the kind of guy who's not on the internet all day. The new song is almost decent if the pointless spoken word part wasn't there. "Production" makes it fucking unlistenable though. Even Ghost Harvest sounded slightly better than this (slightly!). This is nowhere near the songwriting of the first Ghost Harvest though - I kind of wish he would have made a full album in that style, actually. Go in that direction rather than trying to do the "Barbaric-Romantic" thing. I doubt there will be anything as great and emotional as "Feral" or "Justine" on here.

The above is a comment after a truly dimwitted and dismissive article by MetalSucks on VS' videos;

https://www.metalsucks.net/2020/04/17/g ... vie-maker/

...and I'm kinda quoting it for truth in the very general point it's making.

a) DeFeis is not ruining his legacy as the old albums will always exist and you can simply stick with those as a fan

b)artists are gonna artist....i.e, they should be allowed to grow and experiment as they see fit. This isn't saying we shouldn't critique but more like saying dude isn't going to reasonably speaking, make Invictus again and that should be okay. The critique should elevate beyond "how could he do this to his fans" and "surely he's lost his marbles" as if he exists as an artist solely to please his stuck in 1998 fans.

That said, I didn't like the new song lol.

I am however charmed by elements of it as I was by Ghost Harvest...and this seems stylistically in that vein. The production is what ultimately prevents me from fully enjoying it. Still, not as bad as I may have been led to believe.

my vacuum cleaner broke yesterday so I slapped a Virgin Steele sticker on it and it started to suck again.

This doesn't sound anything like Ghost Harvest. This is back to the full-on power metal VS. Really, the actual song is solid enough. The entire middle section could have been excised completely though.

Yeah, I have to come down on agreeing with you here... the new Virgin Steele stuff is weird as shit and doesn't really work for me the way I think he wants it to, but can't deny he's really blazing his own trail and that's just how it is with some artists. I do prefer he keeps doing what he wants instead of just doing a Sabbath '13' or Priest 'any of their non-Nostradamus reunion albums' thing that's just a rehash.

That Ghost Harvest album is one that, despite my review at the time, I do occasionally go back to to see if there's anything there. I did spend a lot of time over the pandemic expanding how I saw a lot of stuff art-wise. I don't know if it works or what he wanted to accomplish, but hey I'm not doing this with like, the new Kamelot or whatever.

Listening now, my impression is that he has a lot of ideas and inspiration in all these varying kinds of music that doesn't really translate to much momentum for me; the songs don't really move in a way that intrigues me, and the vocals just get so silly... but at the same time again, I mean, the world would be a less interesting place if people didn't try this kind of wacky shit now and again.

Switching over to Atreus. These albums were also really crazy and experimental even for him at the time. What a fucking monument.

You know, as much as this isn’t all that great etc etc I can kind of respect the fact (as others have said) that he just does his own thing. And as far as I’m concerned anyone who writes music like the stuff from Marriage 1 through Atreus 2 has a lifetime pass from me. Astounding albums.


Plus, fuck those metal sucks guys - wouldn’t know good music if it dick-slapped them right in the face. Biggest dumbasses in the whole scene. Yes, we get t, the Perfect Mansions video sucks. But god damn it’s a good song.

Yeah, MetalSucks is one of the worst sites on the internet. "Perfect Mansions" is one of the best songs ever written.

In a interview that David did around the time of the Nocturnes release, he mentioned that he was in his "Brian Wilson" phase. Perfectly sums it up to me. A mad genuis just doing his thing.

Atreus II is really very good. I never gave it as much attention but it's pretty much the same league as the others before it... well done, textured, epic music.

It's probably my favorite from the classic era (although they're mostly interchangeable, and my opinion usually changes to whichever one I'm currently listening to).

The Marriage ones will always have that special place for me, and Atreus I is so striking and artistic... but Atreus II really might be his most accomplished vision, with this huge scope and how soulful the slow parts are. I'm gonna listen to it more this week.