Another V band, Virgin Steele, has been a longtime favorite of mine going back to when I first discovered them in '00, but not many other metalheads I've talked with have heard of them. That's almost understandable, since for as long as I've known them few if any of their works have really been available for legitimate purchase either physical (not counting paying $40 to have it shipped from Japan) or digital, so if you want to get these you'll have to turn to torrents or P2P.
Virgin Steele was formed in the early 80's by guitarist Jack Starr and singer David Defeis. Right off the bat there was conflict within the group as Starr wanted to produce songs influenced by the NWOBHM movement with lyrics that covered subjects such as fast cars and cute girls, while Defeis preferred to take his cue, musically and lyrically, from Ronnie Dio's work with Rainbow and Sabbath. This dichotomy showed on the first two albums. Ultimately Defeis would win out as his epic song from the self-titled album, "Children of the Storm", would appear on label compilations and later be cited as a favorite of band members from Queensryche and Metallica. The second album,
Guardians of the Flame, featured the single "Cry in the Night" that would showcase Defeis' ability to write excellent ballads, recurrent in later VS albums.
"
Children of the Storm" - from
Virgin Steele (1982)
"
Dont Say Goodbye" - from
Guardians of the Flame (1984)
"
Cry in the Night" - ibid
After the first two albums, Starr saw the writing on the wall and left to pursue other interests. Defeis brought in guitarist Edward Pursino as a replacement, and the duo has been the core of VS ever since. Over the next few years, VS released
Noble Savage and
Age of Consent, showing Defeis' penchant for writing epic metal. AOC is also notable as it saw Defeis begin to use themes from Greek and Roman history and mythology as a major source of band lyrics, a staple of VS ever since.
MST3K fans might recognize the song "We Rule the Night" from
Zombie Nightmare. It's playing during the scene where the four troublemaking teens are driving around ("searching three provinces for sleazy chicks") right before they hit the thirty year-old teenager who becomes the titular monster. You can see it
here (fake edit: skip to 6:13, since the timeskip url tag doesn't seem to work here).
Despite the fact that I've been a longtime MST fan and first saw that episode in the mid-90's, that's actually not how I discovered VS. In fact, I was quite surprised when I saw ZN again after I had discovered VS, letting out a "holy shit" after seeing VS' name in the credits and then recognizing the song during that scene.
"
We Rule the Night" - from
Noble Savage (1986)
"
Thy Kingdom Come" - ibid
"
Dont Close Your Eyes" - ibid
"
The Burning of Rome" - from
Age of Consent (1988)
"
Lion in Winter" - ibid
"
Chains of Fire" - ibid
After taking a couple years off, in 1992 they released
Life Among the Ruins, which turned away from the epic style of the previous albums for a more hard rocking sound akin to Whitesnake. This is the black sheep of the discography and I don't recommend checking it out. A couple years later they returned back to their classic style with a pair of albums under the name of
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. These two albums are personal favorites of mine, with Part I being a longtime "sleeper" of sorts on my personal Top Ten list. The hardest part was trying to figure out which sampling of songs to post without putting up the entire album (though some songs were not on Youtube, which was a shame, especially in the case of "House of Dust" from Part I).
"
I Will Come For You" - from
Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I (1994)
"
Trail of Tears" - ibid
"
Forever Will I Roam" - ibid
"
Wake Up Screaming" - ibid
"
Blood of the Saints" - ibid
"
Symphony of Steele" - from
Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II (1995)
"
Twilight of the Gods" - ibid
"
Strawgirl" - ibid
"
Unholy Water" - ibid
"
Victory is Mine" - ibid
A few years later VS released
Invictus, which Defeis has said could just as well be called
Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part III. They changed up the style on this one though, cutting back on the epic sounds for more of a stripped-down Manowar type sound. Despite the fact I do like Manowar, the sound didn't work for VS and I'm not high on this album.
"
Invictus" - from
Invictus (1998)
Following
Invictus came a rather ambitious project by the group, under the name
House of Atreus, based off the Greek mythological stories of
Atreus and his descendants. HOA would be released under two parts, referred to in their titles as "acts". Act I came out in 1999 with 22 tracks, half of which were instrumentals ranging from thirty seconds to two minutes long. Act II followed a year later and was a two-CD release with 23 tracks..
Musically, it's a mix between the Manowar style of
Invictus and the classic style from the MOHAH albums. I really want to like this one, but frankly three CDs with 45 tracks is a bit much to digest, and I think I've only ever listened to the full collection beginning to end once.
"
Kingdom of the Fearless" - from
House of Atreus Act I (1999)
"
Great Sword of Flame" - ibid
"
Wings of Vengeance" - from
House of Atreus Act I (2000)
"
Flames of Thy Power" - ibid
