Even though this album is somehow as could be expected and all the way
Virgin Steele, it's still refreshing, ingenious and different in a fascinating way.
All tracks apart from a single one are beyond 6 minutes, the production has a dark edge to it, still very balanced and crisp and it's like a dramatic and all surrounding veil has been put over these songs, giving the whole album a special grave and tense glow.
After starting out with the eponym's debut in 1982, Visions Of Eden is the 11th studio album from the band. So after intensive listening I have naturally embraced it as an essential part of life just as the others, I just hope that this album will bring
Virgin Steele to an even greater fan base.
11 songs and a total of nearly 80 minutes equal a monumental and complex display; the following is a short commentary of some personal highlights.
Immortal I Stand (The Birth Of Adam) is one of the bands finest moments ever and one of the albums most forward creations. An exceptional element is the dynamic keyboard and drum collaboration, it provides a total unique drive to song, another is found with the catchy and majestic chorus.I will let you explore the countless remaining treats yourself.
With its almost 10 minutes,
Adorned With The Rising Cobra is the albums lengthiest track and even though it has its own special vibe and elegant flow, a really effusive element is somehow missed.
David's passionate vocal delivery and subtle piano sections are fabulous.
A heavy guitar riff leads
The Ineffable Name down a faster and fiercer road, still with plenty of tricky corners and effectual bumps. One thing is for sure; this album is by no means missing any creativity, this being a perfect and constantly evolving example.
The real scope of the albums dramatic potential sets in from the first second of the spellbinding
Black Light On Black, insane vocal dramatics of the most convincing kind are expertly followed by a thunderous guitar solo accompanied by bombastic and wonderfully played drumming. Next up is a huge atmospheric section slowly dragging the tempo out of the song until it's only vocals and soft piano tones creating the most moving scenario, and all of a sudden the madness and utter rage returns, instrumentalized through double bass drumming and screaming guitars.now this is what I call Barbaric Romantic Symphonic Metal.
Bonedust keeps the momentum going with a massive groove and thick bass structures. I adore the sudden break and mystic mid-section passage, so typical
Virgin Steele and still so unexpected and captivating.
The epic key layers opening
Angel Of Death gets me every time, I can't explain it but this magical ambience just sends me away to the most wonderful of places. This comprehensive monster reflects a sombre and dreadful side to the story with a crushingly deep rhythm structure, and then all of a sudden David sings out
"high above where the sunlight rips the sea, I am free" in a tone carrying positivism and hope. I'm speechless, how can anyone make music this divine I keep asking myself.
This is one of the shortest eight and a half minute songs I know of, it borrows your inner soul and returns it with the harsh marks of life, but by all means richer.
God Above God uses a delicate acoustic guitar to create a sad and heartfelt mood supported by the most fantastic key background. Edward Pursino throws in some moving lead threads brining it to the perfect finalisation.
The Hidden God is mostly a mid-tempo track that somehow manages to inject a lot of what this album is all about: Emotional vocals, creative bass passages, shifting structures, ingenious drumming and pompous keys...the chorus isn't the most thrilling one but this is yet another strong composition.
If you have difficulty in defining the word drama or simply grandeur, the
opening 17 seconds of
Childslayer could perhaps be of help. Seriously, I have never heard anything quite like it, the crushing impact of the drums and David's otherworldly and overly sensitive screams as the perfect counterweight; it's just an unforgettable moment.
Apart from that this is the albums shortest and most direct song, and placed in just the right order when considering the larger picture, tempo-filled and crisp.
The extremely touching scenario slowly unfolding as
When Dusk Fell opens it's all embracing and caressing arms gave me shivers down my spine the first time I heard it and I don't think it will ever stop having this effect. The atmosphere hits with immense intensity, the keyboard harmony is pure magic, the soulful guitar solo breathtaking and the vocals spellbinding.
Visions Of Eden ends a most spectacular journey with a song being very much its own in both style and overall feeling. The first part has an experimental structure and half way through we get introduced to the overall refrain formula, being fairly simply but containing an immense force and even better, it keeps evolving as the song grows. I have a very hard time removing it form my mind.not that I even want to, it has an indescribable healing and sedative effect which comes from the tender way David sings and transforms it, it's heaven sent.
The songs take the time they need to build up the right atmosphere and feeling, once in a while I miss a more direct path, but I can't say the chosen way of doing things isn't successful, it's perhaps exactly what makes this album stand out and appear compelling and so hard to put aside.
The layers are vast, the details astounding and the emotional context deep.
If we single out the keyboard on this record I think it makes up the strongest and most important role in any
Virgin Steele album to date, I have mentioned a lot of examples and if you need a last convincing one, try listening to the melody line at 8:52 in
Adorned With The Rising Cobra, simply magnificent.
This time around David has written all the music himself, but the album wouldn't have been nearly as amazing if it hadn't been for his faithful friend and guitar maestro Edward Pursino, whose guitar both bends and bleeds, Frank Gilchrist's impressive drum dynamics and Joshua Block's inventive bass usage.
The album deals with the dawn of divinity, how religion has been used and abused and raises philosophical questions towards its meaning.
On micro level it's about the suppression of the feminine essence, a hymn to determinism and honour, it's about struggle, unfathomable affliction but also a delicate glimpse of curative liberation.
Need I say that the lyrics are intelligent, relevant, poetic and sophistically enchanting.
Virgin Steele has again proven that they master the genre of breathtaking, pompous and epic Metal.
Visionary RevelationZ:
Immortal I Stand (The Birth Of Adam),
Black Light On Black,
Angel Of Death and
When Dusk Fell.
Written by
Tommy Tuesday, August 8, 2006
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