The Book of Burning

Although listed as a full-length album, The Book of Burning is actually a collection of re-recorded tunes from Virgin Steele’s first two LPs, with added unreleased songs written and recorded at different points in the band’s career. If this leaves you scratching your head, a little digging into the album’s backstory may clarify one thing or two. Originally, David DeFeis intended to reissue the band’s first two albums, Virgin Steele (1982) and Guardians of the Flame (1983), which at the time had gone out of print. The singer contacted Virgin Steele’s then-guitarist Jack Starr to ask for his approval and collaboration on the project. That did not quite work out, and so DeFeis steered his original idea towards a “re-recorded material album” format, adding a further bunch of unreleased tracks to it, some of which co-written with Starr for yet another tanked project the duo had tried out in the mid1990s.

Quite predictably given the nature of the material it contains, the album is somewhat out of sync relative to the type of aesthetics Virgin Steele were exploring in the early2000s, and is instead rooted in the band’s original sound from the beginning of their career. The gutsy and epic stylings of 1980s heavy metal emerge loud and clear from most of the tracks included here, often blended with an enjoyable hard rock swagger that may remind of bands like Deep Purple or Whitesnake. The best cuts are arguably those lifted from the band’s first two albums, such as "Don't Say Goodbye (Tonight)", "Children of the Storm", “The Redeemer” and "Guardians of the Flame" – all featuring simple but effective riffs, and a great balance between aggression and melody.

The cracks start to show more in the new songs, especially those penned with Starr in the 1990s. The songwriting is actually decent and not so different from that on the 1980s albums, but the arrangements are very primitive (the programmed drums are particularly awful), to the point that they often sound more like demos than fully-fledged songs ("Hellfire Woman", "The Chosen Ones"). Elsewhere, the direction of travel changes quite abruptly, as the songwriting draws more heavily from the symphonic and epic metal stylings of Virgin Steele’s late 1990s albums, such as in the case of "Conjuration of the Watcher", a song that was in fact recorded during the sessions for their 1999 album The House of Atreus Act I. These swings in style are not very frequent, yet they give the album a slightly disjointed, compilation-like feel that detracts somewhat from the listening experience. There are also strong new tunes, however, such as the beautiful "The Final Days" (co-written with Starr), filled with slow-burn anger and doomy heaviness in a way that reminded me of early Savatage.

Overall, I am not sure I’d recommend this album to newcomers to Virgin Steele’s work. Despite its compilation-like nature, the album is focused on a very specific period of the band’s sound, which the record explores somewhat inconsistently, both in terms of quality and style. However, fans of the band should find lots to rejoice over here, as the album is a treasure-trove of lost tunes that may have never seen the light of day without this release.

This is perfect from start to finish; a multi-storied body of work depicting Virgin Steele as barbaric, romantic and apocalyptic all in one fell swoop. Usually re-recording songs is not as rewarding as it promises to be. Many bands do indeed fumble the ball as they halfheartedly try to recapture the nuances of their energetic youths. The picture often reproduced is shameful and dishonoring, largely because they are "faking it"; the glory days are impossible to relive, especially when stylistically you've gone through more configurations than a Rubik's cube, and so what once sounded fresh and imaginative is rendered tastelessly slick and tacky. There's many examples to cite but this review happens to be about only Virgin Steele and I've digressed too far enough already.

Virgin Steele have been tirelessly selling the same old books for years. The versions differ and each manages to retain some sort of intrinsic qualities separate from the other, but at the core the message rings the same. And that is how I'll end that metaphor because it doesn't really matter how and from what ends you look at "The Book Of Burning", because the literal truth remains the same: this is thoroughly enjoyable material of top quality!

We are presented with eight never heard before songs and eight re-workings of old classics that still sound vital as they did back in the '80s from whence they were plucked. Heck, "Children Of The Storm" packs a harder punch than the original and if you thought "The Redeemer" was a force to conquer the lands with, then brace yourself because this time it is a potent vanquishing potion to arm yourself with at all times. "Don't Say Goodbye Tonight" travels respectfully over sacred romantic grounds, continually proving that our Mr. DeFeis is both a fighter and a lover.

"Conjuration Of The Watcher" was left over from "The House Of Atreus: Act I" sessions and maintains the groundbreaking epic flourishes of then, while "Hot And Wild" from the "Noble Savage" sessions is a thunderous heavy metal assault made all the more glorious because it is seemingly mindless of this modern new age of concise and neat song packages (hey Dave, people just don't sing like that anymore!)

Throughout the album, Edward Pursino's powerful riff tones and blistering leads ring out loud and clear (all hail the man!) and the keyboards maintain a graceful presence that neither clouds nor cripples the quality of the metal.

A final word must be said for the Anthem of the Apocalypse, "The Final Days" with its frenetic breaks, smart, segmented licks, and raspy Savatage-like vocals...and that word is ORGASMIC! Virgin Steele proved their worth a long time ago, but this should be owned by every fan just for the pleasure of beaming with pride as they race, by contrasts, wildly and elegantly from song to song.