Virgin Steele 1 (1981) and Guardians Of The Flame (1982) have become available for the first time on CD through Noise Records, making these rare releases from Virgin Steele, a New York City outfit, readily available to the metal masses. Guardians Of The Flame bleeds pure metal and it shows the essence of what classic 80s metal once stood for years ago! It's a pure classic, and it's great to have releases like this available on CD. Virgin Steele 1 is not quite as polished but there are still some essential metal moments including 'Danger Zone' and 'Pulverizer'. Virgin Steele 1 was also the very first release on Music for Nations, catalog number MFN1. Metallica's vinyl pressing on the Music For Nations label has also become a highly sought after collectable.
I'm going to focus on Guardians of the Flame as it's my favorite of the two, and you can really hear a large improvement in many categories from their debut. 'Don't Say Goodbye (Tonight)' opens with a monstrous riff while 'Burn The Sun' shows off heavy metallic vocals from David DeFeis. Track three, 'Life Of Crime', has one of the more memorable choruses on Guardians Of The Flame while 'Birth Through Fire' is a simple and short introduction to the melodic and romping title-track. 'Metal City' highlights Jack Starr's guitar pyrotechnics, Starr went on to form Jack Starr's Burning Star following 1985s Noble Savage release with Virgin Steele, a few Burning Star CDs have recently been reissued through Metal Mayhem and other various outlets. 'Metal City' totally scorches and it's what I would consider the highlight within. ‘Go All The Way’, Hell or High Water and ‘A Cry in the Night’ round out the rest of the original Guardians Of The Flame.
As far as the bonus tracks are concerned they create an extended listening experience making a good CD even better. They are all exceptional and they fit in well within the context of the release. The interview is also entertaining, taking the listener back into the early 80s, but I've always felt interview tracks belong on a second disc (see the 2-CD versions of Ozzy's The Ozzman Cometh and Iced Earth's Horror Show). But at the end of it all, there is some essential metal here and these CDs show the beginning of a longstanding career from Virgin Steele, one which has spanned numerous releases over twenty (plus) years.
http://www.virgin-steele.com/
http://www.noiserecords.com/
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