This job here is also about making peace with our past, I mean, not making peace with we did, but with the things we did not do. As I said many times before, there are many important bands that I have never heard a thing about their music. It is not because I did not like them or I did not want to hear from them, it was just how life was back then. We did not have the chance to listen to all bands that mattered. It would be impossible to buy all the albums, I know some people who tried, but they never reached their goal. Vicious Rumors are one of them. I mean, I know the band, I have read about them many times, but myonly experience with their music was their 2020s album “Celebration Decay.” Well, now is about time. A little bit late, there is no place like now.
Ok, now, some words about the band’s rumorous career – no pun intended. Oh, who am I trying to fool? It was so intended… Vicious Rumors are one of the bands which helped shaping the US version of Power Metal, originally formed in 1979 in the well-known San Francisco Bay Area. The band’s first full-length album “Soldiers of the Night” was released in 1985, it featured Geoff Thorpe, Gary St. Pierre, Vinnie Moore, Dave Starr, and Larry Howe. It quickly began to establish the band’s worldwide reputation. This release is classed as a milestone and a classic in Power Metal. From then on, the band’s career and reputation just escaleted with 1986s “Digital Dictator,” the album that skyrocketed them to fame and fortune. This album with Shrapnel Records is considered to have helped define Vicious Rumors’ classic US Power Metal sound. They became an international live act at this point: they were invited to appear at the Dutch Aardschok Festival (alongside Megadeth, Testament, and Nuclear Assault), the Dynamo Open Air Festival – where they played in front of 40,000 people -, and at live festivals with Death Angel and Forbidden. However, things got even better when the band signer with the classic Atlantic Records and released their 1990s self-tittled album.
Now back to the future. According to bandleader Geoff Thorpe: “The shows we played during the past four years and our two new additions have shaped a sound that blends classic Vicious Rumors with modern elements. I couldn’t be happier with the result!” I cannot really say about the classic band, but this album showed me about the modern elements and I have no option, but to agree with him. “The Devil’s Asylum” sounds very fresh. While “Wrong Side of Love” has a very 1980s vibe, album warmer “Bloodbath“ sounds pretty much updated. On the other hand, tracks as “Boring Day in Hell” do the job of being at the same time modern and classic. By the way, I liked a lot the way the band treats its bass lines giving them every now and then the lead. But the highlight of the album, is how tracks as grand finale “The Devil’s Asylum” and “In Blood We Trust” give the fan the opportunity to get to know the band’s classic times.
Listening to “The Devil’s Asylum” makes it easy to understand the band’s reputation and understand how their music got so influential. Now it got easier to trace where many echoes of their music in other bands came from. It is a band that I have met a long time ago, but have not really met, if you understand what I am saying.
One thing I can say for sure, I regret the days I lost not knowing Vicious Rumors. They would have given me a more complete idea of what Power Metal is all about.
Vicious Rumors “The Devil’s Asylum” will be released on August 29th via Steamhammer / SPV.
Track Listing:
01. Bloodbath
02. Dogs of War
03. Crack the Sky in Half
04. High Hell Hammer
05. Butchers Block
06. Abusement Park
07. Wrong Side of Love
08. Boring Day In Hell
09. In Blood We Trust
10. Better Than Me
11. The Devil’s Asylum
Watch “Bloodbath” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!