Right if you are a long term fan of veterans Virgin Steele just go and buy this now, I’m sure you’ll love it as they ain’t changed.

For the rest of us ‘toe dippy, see what it’s like’ people…?

Well I haven’t bought anything by the band since Jack Starr departed (that’d be 1984 people) but I’ve been vaguely aware of the kind of stuff they’ve been doing, listened to the odd bit. Just not sat down with an album. And no one else was stepping forward to take on nearly 80 minutes of Virgin Steele and in the last week or two I’ve done around 100 minutes of Xasthur and an hour of Khanate so why the hell not.

The bands core (main man David DeFeis, crucified on the cover just to show how humble he is I guess and Edward Pursino) have been together since 85, and Joshua Block since 2000 so they know each other well and what they want to do. And this is it.

Just for the record, it was 1993 since Virgin Steel last did an album under an hour, and 1988 since they restricted themselves to around the 45 minute mark. Does it matter? Yes. This appears to be some kind of concept album, again as is their usual modus operandi and again frankly calling this power metal or symphonic metal is really pushing it (which I guess is why our resident power guru backed well away from this).

‘The Gethsemane Effect’ initially seems like it might be with DeFeis’ distinctive vocals (rough, raw with the occasional air raid siren burst, but actually rather good once you get settled in to them) and a nice guitar tone but this soon falls into the flow that will take us through the next 70 odd minutes. Soft rock liberally laced with piano, keyboards, the odd atmospheric effect and lilting guitar runs. It’s gentle, and to me apart from the vocals sounds like the kind of thing Styx were doing round about Paradise Theatre or Kilroy Was Here with exactly the same issues – easy listening, pretty bland prog tinged commercial rock determinedly trying to tell us the tale, but sadly with little if any concession to hooks or memorable melodies. Everything is about the concept, and the individuality of songs just gets drowned in what they need each song to say lyrically.

All but two of the 10 songs are well into the 7 minute plus mark, and only one, ‘Black Earth And Blood’ is under 3. I’m guessing it is designed to be a single of sorts but frankly it is just another brick in this wall of rock piano and prog.

Before you get the wrong idea if you look around these parts I have had the pleasure of reviewing prog bands before such as Lonely Robot. I have no axe to grind there. But what this does bring back are those horrible memories of a teenager being forced to listen to this particular brand of prog by a school friend – double concept albums by rock bands where the writing makes the whole thing fade into one long track with no ebb, flow, rise or fall. A mural devoid of points of imagery to pull you in. There are literally no standout songs because nothing here is designed to stand out as that might, shock horror, detract from the story order. This is exactly why it took a good decade for anyone to convince me to give Operation Mindcrime a go (which I now like but I still prefer Empire); this rock band vision of a concept album. I have played this album more than five times all the way through and nothing has stuck. Not one passage, I’m sorry.

As I said at the top if you love the band, buy this now. It has a lovely production and the band is the band doing what they love and doing it with fine musicianship and integrity. All power to them for that. It takes huge dedication to be going this long in the business and maintain a loyal fanbase.

If you’re not a fan, then approach with immense caution as for me listening to nearly 80 minutes of piano and keyboard based rock variations on a bland template was not an uplifting experience I’m afraid.

(3.5/10 Gizmo)

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