I'd go like this:
Disc two on Atreus II starts to lose it a little, particularly the "By the Gods" suite tracks.

dude, "Justine" is fucking heartbreaking. Love that song. Beautiful chorus and the lyrics are great too.

Lyric video of 'The Gethsemane Effect' will be online in 38 hours. Can't wait to be disappointed once again.

It sounds like someone added vocals to a Doom midi.

This isn't metal. This isn't metal. This isn't metal.

If you liked "Visions of Eden" and "The Black Light Bacchanalia", this is for you as it's in the same ballpark, albeit with an obvious rock bent.

^ Well, ok, there was a time when the vocals were better but don't you think that the "aimless mess of piano nonsense" could turn out to be "sense" after ten listens or so? I mean some of the longer tracks are fairly complex and some parts are full of subtleties, so they'll take some time to unravel.

Why the hell anyone would give an album of auto tuned vocals, absent guitars and programmed drums 10 spins is beyond me.

Eh, I liked it. It's the strongest of the current VS era.

Love his keyboard playing on You'll Never See The Sun Again.

The bar is literally on the ground at the moment, it can't go any lower

If the highlight is his keyboard playing then awesome I've got to check it out...joking, fuck that. Maybe the thread should be moved over to the tavern.

What was Virgin Steele's high water mark then? Many people will say "Invictus" and the two "Atreus" albums but that's a matter of taste. For me, VS get worse the closer they get to catchy symphonic Euro-power metal, and simplistic stuff like "Victory is Mine" was atrocious.

Why do so many people expect VS to be metal? Half of the early stuff up to "Invictus" was hard rock anyway, and if you count the, er, countless later ballads and interludes you end up with a project that is very different from bands like Priest and Manowar, which undoubtedly influenced it.

I'm not saying "You have to like Defeis's recent stuff" but, considering the fact that his stylistic range comprises almost anything from thrash (Exorcist) to "Bohemian Rhapsody" sung by bats on a lone piano in the attic, I'd rather people explained why a particular composition is good or bad.

Simplistic compared to what? Most tunes on Noble Savage and Age of Consent sound simplistic. And let's not even speak of Life Among the Ruins.

Because, with the exception of Life Among the Ruins and symphonic/classical influences aside, Virgin Steele have always been a metal band at their core. Not to mention that David DeFeis hyped this new album up as something in the vein of their /Invictus/Atreus/Visons stuff.

Compared to the more epic and sophisticated tracks like "Prometheus", "Emalaith" or "Noble Savage" (the track, not the album)
.

please tell me why the songs rock or suck, regardless of genre. If the answer is: "Because I can't bang my head to this stuff that is supposed to be metal", it doesn't tell me anything about the music itself but only about stylistic expectations.

I always did think "Victory is Mine" was an odd choice for one of people's favorites from that album. It's grown on me but it's hardly their most arresting song or anything.

Because it's all about David and his piano at this point. I'm not even sure who wrote which tunes in the past (DeFeis said that he did with the help of Pursino to lay down the guitars), but the earlier stuff at least sounds as if the whole band was involved. That's definitely no longer the case anymore. Hell, even earlier vocal-orientated tunes like 'Blood and Gasoline' and 'Self Crucifixion' remain brilliant, but nothing on the new album comes close to those tunes. Add a few other issues like DeFeis programming the drums and producing this record on his own and the results are disastrous.

Yes, it's about David and his piano, it's a one-man band, more or less, and the programmed drums sound really lifeless but what about the songs, the compositions? The only thing you say is that they can't hold a candle to the two old ones you mention but don't explain why.

Personally, I couldn't say much about these tracks at this point and after one listen, it's much too early, only that they're very well thought-out ("The Ritual of Descent"!!), so that comments like "This is a new low" etc. just come across as "I expect something else and can't be bothered to get my teeth into it."