At last the first two
Virgin Steele albums are on the market, this re-mastered and partly new mixed version also has quite a few interesting bonus tracks.
The first
Virgin Steele album relies on a cool direct and "in your face" recipe, spiced with epic touches and a very fine ballad.
Danger Zone can be described as a direct hard pounding mid-tempo creation with roaring high pitch vocals and a phenomenal bass delivery.
American Girl has a catchy easygoing feeling to it and David's vivid vocals sounds fantastic, teasing leads and tight drumming helps in making this a very cool song.
Dead End Kids flirts around with grooving bass parts, detailed drums and a screaming guitar solo all making quite much sense in a rather loosely structured track.
The albums rocking and relaxed vibe comes fully to life in the jamming
Drive On Through featuring a down to earth and yet catchy guitar riff as the driving element.
Still In Love With You is one of the albums biggest highlights, a wonderful ballad containing mellow keys and that special emotional
Virgin Steele mood. The shifts in pace are mixed together in a very dynamic fashion and the powerful bass, the melodic guitar solo and David's strong vocals sounds just amazing.
A fast and energetic style is gone for with
Children Of The Storm having a harmonious refrain as a well working binding element, added technical drumming this is another very strong cut.
Pictures On You is a quite easy going and jamming track with a massive guitar solo; a more captivating structure could have made better, giving it a more fluid flow.
Pulverizer is 2:10 minute guitar solo/harmony offering with high energy and not that much melody.
Even though the musical approach can seem at bit simple as the main rhythm of
Living In Sin, it's very characteristic for the entire album that the song nevertheless has some cool variations and details to offer, just when you are about to think it's a rather standard composition something different or fittingly odd happens, keeping the interest fed, that's a strong quality for a debut.
The ending title track starts out with a mystic atmosphere and the moody keyboard gives the song an extra layer that suits in well, the varied rhythm guitar plays an important part and all in all this is another solid Metal creation.
On the lyrical front things are also looking good, the themes are spanning simpler every day aspects as living life to the full but quite interesting adventurous and epic aspects are also presented.
This debut has a high amount of great melodies and you feel a yearning to sing along on almost every track, every idea is not just as intriguing or captivating but it certainly has a cool rocking charm to it.
The bonus tracks are made up by different versions of tracks from this and the second
Virgin Steele album and also a demo track, all highly worth listening too; the rating is based on the original tracks though.
When judging the production it's pretty clear that we are on a low budget in the beginning of the eighties, the sound being quite unpolished. Anyway I think that the "live'ish" feel fits in and the clearness level is actually quite high.
It's very apparent that this is in the beginning of the band's career, some songs are very chorus orientated and based on few guitar riffs, but I think this is a very good release all in all. These melodic songs are delivered with a certain freshness and raw attitude that gives it a unique atmosphere.
Written by
Tommy Saturday, August 28, 2004
Show all reviews by TommyRatingsTommy: 7/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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