Virgin Steele - Virgin Steele (1982)^{Release ID: 2336}

New York heavy metal legends Virgin Steele began life as a four-piece back in 1981 & unbelievably started recording their debut album just three weeks later. The self-titled release finally saw the light of day late the following year in December 1982 & it didn’t exactly set the world on fire to be fair. For starters, the production is absolutely dreadful (even for the time) so one would assume that this was a self-financed & produced effort. In fact, it sounds very much like it was recorded live as the rough edges haven’t been smoothed out & are all still very obvious (if not intrusive). Also, much like Manowar's "Battle Hymns" debut, the album showcases a band that was very much still finding their sound with an array of different styles on offer across the tracklisting. There are a few tracks that present the bombastic style of heavy metal that Virgin Steele would later become known for but they’re surrounded by material that could only be described as generic 70’s inspired hard rock. I mean, as with many heavy metal releases of the NWOBHM era, there’s just as much hard rock here as there is legitimate heavy metal with 70’s hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, UFO, Rush, Van Halen & particularly Rainbow all having a hand in Virgin Steele’s sound. On the other side of the equation there’s a lot of 70’s Judas Priest here too along with elements of the more modern early 80’s Ozzy Osbourne metal sound.

A combination of those influences Virgin Steele may be but it’d be remiss of me not to draw your attention to the fact that early Virgin Steele also offers the listener an additional element; a unique identifier that set them apart from the rest of the field. Even at this very early stage we see them regularly employing elements of classical music to give their sound more of an epic orchestral feel. I’d suggest that this more pompous & theatrical style was influenced by bands like Queen & Rainbow however Virgin Steele present their melodies & orchestration a bit differently; often hinting at a medieval sound. It’s certainly pretty cheesy at times with more than a whiff of power metal about it & the higher register vocals of David Defeis do nothing to alleviate my concerns but this album really is all about the solos with guitar shredder Jack Starr showing off his Eddie Van Halen & Randy Rhoads influenced chops at every opportunity. Jack employs a similar approach to Randy in that he colours the riffs with improvised lead work & very rarely sits still. To be honest though the production is that poor & the song-writing so substandard that it makes very little difference to my overall enjoyment of the record. In fact, the only track that I legitimately enjoy is an Eddie Van Halen “Eruption”-inspired unaccompanied guitar wank piece entitled “Pulverizer” which doesn’t say much for the rest of the material. There are a couple of real shockers here too.

Personally I find “Virgin Steele” to be pretty lackluster overall but it was always unlikely to appeal to my tastes. If you like the sound of 70’s-hard-rock-inspired heavy metal like Japan’s Loudness crossed with the epic cheesiness of Sweden’s Heavy Load & the more expansive & fantasy-fueled arrangements of classic Rainbow then you may feel differently.