The second album (with The Book Of Burning) to commemorate Virgin Steele's 20-year career is a 13 song collection under the title Hymns To Victory.
The Book Of Burning contained songs from their first 2 albums, Virgin Steele and The Guardians Of The Flame, and this collection come to cover the rest of their albums, ranging from Noble Savage to Invictus and their latest albums House Of Atreus Act I & II).
Unlike The Book Of Burning this collection doesn't have as many new releases or new recordings. To be exact, Hymns To Victory contains 2 new songs (Saturday Night and The Mists Of Avalon), 1 new re-recorded version of The Spirit Of Steele and the rest 10 songs being re-masters and alternate mixes.
First of all I'll comment the two new songs. Saturday Night is a hard rock kind of song, which seems like being written and recorded in the Noble Savage era, strongly reminding songs like I'm On Fire and Rock Me. The second song, The Mists Of Avalon, is a song in the spirit of Marriage Part II, mid-tempo, melodic and epic!
The re-recorded version of The Spirit Of Steele is an acoustic one, not greatly varying from the original version, only using acoustic guitars instead of electric ones.
The rest of the songs are re-masters of the original ones, and with some in alternate (but not very different from the originals) mixes. The selection of the songs is very good, without anyone being uninteresting, with classics such as the magnificent Burning Of Rome (in my opinion, and not only, one of the best Virgin Steele songs), the epic A Symphony Of Steele and the all-time classic Noble Savage. But there are some songs missing, cornerstones in their career, such as The Angel Of Light (one of my 3 favorite Steele songs), Vini, Vidi, Vici and others.
Making a conclusion, Hymns To Victory is a best-of collection of Virgin Steele's songs, from Noble Savage and on, with 2 new songs completing it. As someone can see, it is not for those who own most of Virgin Steele's albums, but only to hard-core collectors and those who haven't heard anything from Virgin Steele and want to have a spherical opinion (although I'd suggest to them to buy Noble Savage and Marriage Of Heaven And Hell Part II instead).