Well, well. It's hard to write negative things for a band that you really love but sometimes you can't avoid it. Virgin Steele,as many people believe,have mounted the throne of epic metal since the release of 'Invictus', an album that many people loved. Manowar gave, - in the hearts of many metallers - the crown of the epic metal throne to Virgin Steele. After 'Invictus', Virgin Steele released The house of atreus part 1. A good album but nothing special... Now it's time for them to close the chapter of the rock opera 'House of Atreus'.

  After the first listening session of the new album I got puzzled. It's Virgin steele, hell, I said! It must be good! Well, I tried to listen to all of it for a second time and I failed not to skip some tracks... With all the respect I have for Virgin Steele I have to say that in order to write 90 minutes (Yes, 'House Of Atreus Part 2' is a two cd set with over 90 minutes of music) of GOOD music you need to follow two rules. First you need to spend a descent amount of time in the composing proccess and in the studio in order to work as good as you can on your ideas. Second rule. You have to write REALLY 'smart' music in order to avoid a 90 minute album to become boring after a while. I think they failed to fulfill both rules. The time between 'House of Atreus part 1' and 'House of Atreus part 2' is really too little! That means not enough time to work on the songs. After that if you want to fill in the gaps between the songs, think something better than loads of meaningless keyboards and narration. Of course you'll tell me that narration is a part of the story. Come on! He is David Defeis! He can turn a boring narration into a pure music track! One more problem is that some past albums ideas have been used again (not in a so good way though). To make myself clear I have to say that despite the fact that I found the album boring sometimes I like Virgin Steele's music, so liked it. But here I can't write only my opinion and I have to see it from a third point of view. So if you are a Virgin Steele fan you''ll get one more masterpiece for you, but I have to warn the others. It's an album for the Virgin Steele legions!
Everything you like from Virgin Steele is included. All the things that have place Virgin Steele in your heart are inside these two cd's. Let's wait for Dave's next move. After all, this rock opera was a really hard thing to do. He didn't succed but he also he didn't fail. With a heart filled up with ice (err, I have heard this before) I give...