Vicious Rumors - Digital Dictator (1988)^{Release ID: 8606}

Although Californian heavy metallers Vicious Rumors have been a fairly significant band in the US power metal spectrum for over four decades now, my exposure to their material has been fairly limited up until now. I think my general understanding of their sound amounted to a few tracks I may have heard on late-night underground metal radio programs in the early 1990’s, possibly taken from their 1991 fourth album “Welcome To The Ball” if memory serves me correctly. Given that I’ve filled a few other obvious gaps in my knowledge of US power metal in recent times though, I thought it might be time to give Vicious Rumors' most highly regarded record a few spins with my enthusiasm levels being quite high going into listen one.

1988's “Digital Dictator” sees Vicious Rumors returning from nearly a three year absence following the release of their first album “Soldiers of the Night” in May 1985. The debut had been generally well received but some lineup changes had taken place since then with former Hawaii front man Gary St. Pierre making way for new singer Carl Albert & (perhaps more significantly) guitar virtuoso Vinnie Moore (UFO/Alice Cooper) being replaced by the relatively unknown Mark McGee. Despite not having heard Vicious Rumors’ debut, I’d have to suggest that fans would have been fairly satisfied with the result because both newbies do a stellar job here. In fact, the vocals & lead guitar work are amongst the highlights of the album for mine.

Vicious Rumors’ sound is much like many other US power metal associated bands in that it tinkers with a few different subgenres. The main one is that of classic heavy metal with most of the ten tracks fitting reasonably comfortably under that tag. There are not quite as many tracks that tick all of the boxes required to be classed as US power metal but the muscular metal riffage is still a major component of the album’s appeal so I feel that a dual tagging is appropriate on this occasion. Speed metal also raises its head here & there, particularly on the pacy “Minute To Kill” which should be of interest to members of The Pit. When taken holistically though, I’d suggest that the best points of comparison can be drawn with bands like Liege Lord, Metal Church & Helstar, all of who tend to tip toe along the same greyed-out lines between the various subgenres.

The tracklisting kicks off beautifully with the Iron Maiden-esque instrumental guitar harmony piece “Replicant” leading into the wonderful title track (my personal favourite) which sees Albert’s vocals showcasing a Geoff Tate-like higher-register sheen & the song-writing being ably assisted by a production job that almost feels like progressive metal, despite the compositions offfering few genuinely progressive elements. The remainder of the A side is pretty good too with only the more commercial “Towns On Fire” failing to deliver but the B side is nowhere near as strong, struggling through the middle with a number of filler tracks appearing in quick succession. It’s these inconsistencies that see a record with huge early potential ending up being just another decent 80’s heavy metal record. This style of music lives & dies by the quality of its hooks & there are too many flat ones here to justify my higher scores, despite the instrumentation being right up my alley for the most part.