Kingdom Of The Fearless. A Barbaric-Romantic Opera!
If you think that secondary title sounds dramatic and full of tension, wait to you hear the album.
This grand opus contains a unique mix of Heavy, Power and Symphonic Metal and a special inexplicable element known to connoisseurs as "the
Virgin Steele touch", said in a another way this album has aspects of well known genres, but it's very much the ultra orchestral and dramatic way it's woven together that makes it something completely its own.
This time around David has once again engaged in a very ambitious and far-reaching project.
The setting is ancient Greece where tradition, religion and culture are important aspects in this quite complex concept, being very character focused. This gives it a very vivid, deep and relatable nature; feelings of love, hatred, anger, despair and sorrow are presented in the most thrilling manner.
The album goes through different phases, continually changing from one characters point of view to another; you feel that you get to know the persons and their background quite well, all in all this is a extremely well written tale, some historical some fiction.
There are so many huge tracks on this disc and very importantly the flow is just incredibly natural and smooth, it's just like the songs gets even better by the way they are built into the entire compound, here are some of the most intense moments in my opinion:
Kingdome Of The Fearless (The Destruction Of Troy) is something you can get away with calling a more traditional
Virgin Steele song, feeding on a huge chorus line and a monstrous drum attack. The extensive solo spot takes ones breath away and overall this is bound to make your adrenaline pump wildly.
Just as you had worked you blood pressure up into the high levels
Blaze Of Victory (The Watchman's Song) helps you get it down again. A sombre and gloomy track featuring some of David's most compelling and magical vocal lines.
Flames Of The Black Star (The Arrows Of Herakles) starts out in a down to earth manner and then it suddenly gains speed and lots on intensity. The mid-section, featuring dreaming keyboard moods coupled with David's emotional voice, gets me every time.
I don't think that the piano has had such a dominant and important part in any other
Virgin Steele album, the piano solo
A Song Of Prophecy is not only beautiful, it also leaves you very sedated due to its mesmerizing effect.
This album is in no shortage of fast and powerful Heavy Metal hymns,
Great Sword Of Flame being a great example with its raw guitar riffs, groovy bass passages and vigorous refrain, all of this is of course added epic symphonic orchestrations given it that "special
Virgin Steele touch".
The Gift Of Tantalos is an amazingly dark and revengeful epic, the vocals are haunting and the drama level reaches spectacular dimension, talking about a thrill.
With
Garden Of Lamentation we come to one of my absolute favourite
Virgin Steele songs, the soft melodic acoustic guitar, hypnotic keys and David performing some of his most emotional vocals ever is no less than magical, it doesn't get any sadder than this.
As a warm and refreshing breeze
Gates Of Kings makes its grand entrance as the last song before the short symphonic instrumental outro. Edward's solo most have a mention in this one, played with tons of feeling and catchiness, David's roaring high pitch screams remains in my head even after the record has faded out, these 22 songs truly leaves an impression.
Some of the instrumental songs are quite long but I have begun to see them as minor buffer zones separating the more aggressive and direct compositions.
David DeFeis, Edward Pursino and Frank Gilchriest all deliver some of their best performances here; I simply don't know how they will ever top this album compositionally or musically.
Production-wise everything is also top notch, the basic foundation is extremely tight and every detail is crystal clear.
This album gets all the way to the most inner core of my soul. It is without any doubt one of the few essential things I would pick for a couple of years on a deserted island.
This is Metal in a totally new way, more bombastic, emotional and effusive than ever before.
Written by
Tommy Monday, October 25, 2004
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