Great Metal Albums of 1983: Virgin Steele- Guardians of the Flame
Virgin Steele’s 1982 debut album might have passed me by, (I blame being in the service at the time), but their second album, “Guardians of the Flame,” didn’t. I have a friend of my sister’s to thank for that because she was a big Virgin Steele fan. It was this album that she played on cassette in her car one day and the rest was history.
What hooked me straight away is that my all time favourite Virgin Steele song is the opener on “Guardians of the Flame.” “Don’t Say Goodbye Tonight” is one of those with a fast catchy beat that hooks you immediately. One can’t helped to headbang away to this tune. It is helped by the guitar work of Jack Starr, then the entire album is as well, and the rhythm section sounds the tightest on this song. What’s best is that lead singer, David DeFeis doesn’t try so much to be Joe Cool metal singer on it. His vocals are good enough but his attempts at high screams have always been off putting for me. He doesn’t do that on “Don’t Say Goodbye Tonight.”
DeFeis does those things on the next two tracks but fortunately, Starr’s guitar work cancels out the screams and makes those songs enjoyable. Maybe he gets the hint by track four because he doesn’t scream on “The Redeemer” making it a strong, powerful track. I sense a little Black Sabbath influence here and done well. The song is seven minutes long but a lot of that is Jack laying down the jams, so it’s a very enjoyable track.
Following a brief instrumental is the title cut. It begins like any other straight forward Virgin Steele metal tune but then in the middle, it goes totally progressive rock. I mean that when I listen to this part, I could be listening to Emerson, Lake and Palmer. However, it works with the second longest song on the album, just shy of seven minutes. You got to give them credit for having the balls to stretch out a bit here and credit where do for pulling it off. Again, Jack Starr has an influence on it too.
Things go back to more power metal after that with three really strong metal tracks. Then the album closes with the ballad like, “A Cry in the Night.” Using a ballad as a closer is always risky but there is a great guitar solo towards the end that helps to take the song out in very good way and has me making mental notes to listen to it again.
Track Listing:
- Don’t Say Goodbye Tonight
- Burn the Sun
- Life of Crime
- The Redeemer
- Birth Through Fire
- Guardians of the Flame
- Metal City
- Hell or High Water
- Go All the Way
- A Cry in the Night
David DeFies- vocals, keyboards
Jack Starr- guitar
Joe O’Reilly- bass
Joey Avazian- drums
I was impressed by the second album from Virgin Steele, “Guardians of the Flame” and I would seek out their later material. So what I ask myself is why I never got their debut album. If any of you can shed light on whether I’ve committed a travesty or had a lucky escape by not listening to it, I would be very grateful.
Next post: Waysted- Vices
To buy Rock and Roll Children, go to http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html
Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London
This entry was posted on February 9, 2017 at 9:30 pm and is filed under 1980s, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and the 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags Black Sabbath, Classic Rock, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Guardians of the Flame, Guitarists, hard rock, Heavy Metal, Heavy Rock, Jack Starr, progressive rock, The 1980s, Virgin Steele. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
14 Responses to “Great Metal Albums of 1983: Virgin Steele- Guardians of the Flame”
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
February 10, 2017 at 12:26 am
I’m afraid I can’t shed any light on thos matter. Can samples be tracked down online?
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 10, 2017 at 8:52 am
Yes I found the album quite easily on Youtube
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 10, 2017 at 5:48 pm
It’s kind of amazing that people used to by albums before checking them out online….
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 11, 2017 at 6:13 pm
How far we have progressed. I was usually wary of buying most albums before I had listened to at least some of it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 11, 2017 at 10:26 pm
Yes, that only makes sense. I guess it came down to one brave friend who took the plunge and then had listening parties. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 12, 2017 at 8:49 am
That’s usually how it happened.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 10, 2017 at 12:28 am
*this, not thos… I’m using the phone app
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 10, 2017 at 8:53 am
LOL 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 10, 2017 at 5:48 pm
There’s room for improvement. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 11, 2017 at 6:13 pm
Oh yes, their later stuff is better.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 10, 2017 at 7:55 pm
I haven´t heard it myself, but the dedicated reviewers at the Metal Archives don´t seem overly impressed with the self-titled debut album of Virgin Steele:
http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Virgin_Steele/105
It seems that Virgin Steele, like Grave Digger, is a band that gets more interesting in the 90’s than they were in the 80’s. I would like to check out some of their albums from that decade. Superb stuff, I’ve been told.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 11, 2017 at 6:14 pm
I’ll give the debut album a miss then, thanks for the heads up. I get the impression that Virgin Steele improved with each album.
LikeLike
February 24, 2017 at 5:54 pm
Missed this post, sorry. I’m not quite as keen on this early stuff. Their albums did just get better and better… their stuff in the 90s is just incredible. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell albums are totally essential!
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 25, 2017 at 6:45 pm
I’ll have to listen to the 90s stuff especially as how everyone says their material kept improving.
LikeLiked by 1 person