Virgin Steele

Act I

Interesting, but..

Review Score:

(6/10)
Ok, this album reminds me of a band playing Manowar a la "triumph of steel" but with much less power.

There are some good songs, and the album gets 3 stars simply from Defeis' voice and some very good guitar solos.

The production however is horrible, with no power in the guitars and leaving that metal power feeling completely lacking. Another major flaw is that the keyboards are terrible, laughable, and from reading what Mr. Defeis writes on his website and liner notes, you'd think he's the next Mozart or something. That is not the case, he obviously has no flair for keyboard arrangements and some melodies are laughable (track 9). Sometimes it reminds me of Rhapsody's melodic sense, always wanting to modulate in the middle of the riff, interesting but to me not very satisfying.

I also have a problem with the fact that in the liner notes he doesn't credit ANY musicians!!! What an ego-maniac! I know he wrote it all, and good for him, but come on, somebody had to help!

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