Magick Fire-Music

Released in 2000 between the two acts of the House of Atreus saga, Magick Fire-Music is a short (30-minute) EP containing a diverse range of material – from preview versions of Virgin Steele’s upcoming LP The House of Atreus Act II, to re-working of old material and unreleased bonus tracks. When reviewing this type of albums, it is helpful to distinguish between the value of the music and that of the release in itself.

The former is as strong as it gets. Virgin Steele were riding a creative peak at the turn of the second millennium. Invictus (1998), The House of Atreus Act I (1999) and The House of Atreus Act II (2000) are among the best albums written by the American band, boasting an exceptional blend of heavy metal, symphonic arrangements, and beautiful, epic melodies. With four of its six tracks taken from Act I and II (and one from the band’s earlier masterpiece The Marriage of Heaven and Hell), the EP is in no danger of a quality failure. Mastermind David DeFeis is in the form of his life – his unique voice splendidly balanced between barbaric shouts and poignant falsettos. Edward Pursino’s riffs and leads embody the essence of heavy metal – gritty, muscular and simple, yet engrossing and full of pathos. Meanwhile, DeFeis’ keyboard work adds tons of color to the arrangements, while drummer Frank Gilchriest provides a steady pulse to the proceedings with straight beat patterns augmented by tasteful fills and accents.

Despite the quality of the music it contains, the real issue I have with this EP is that it is entirely superfluous. Just look at the timing of its release: June 2000 – fresh off the heels of Act I (October 1999) and a mere months away from the scheduled release of Act II (November 2000). So, one has to ask - what’s the point, besides trying to make an extra buck? I am not sure, to be honest. The two Act II preview tracks are rough mixes of the songs that would be later included on the full-length, so it’s hard to imagine you need to hear them, unless you are a completionist or you bought this in June 2000 in eager anticipation of the full-length. The two Act I songs are alternate versions of the full-length tracks. “Gate of Kings” gets the semi-acoustic treatment, while “Great Sword of Flame” has a slightly different structure and lyrics. Again, it’s hard to see this being of interest to anyone other than collectors. The same can be said of the remixed version of “Prometheus the Fallen One”. Which brings us to the only original song of the EP, “Agamemnon's Last Hour (Silver Sided Death)”. This turns out to be a disappointingly short (1: 15 minutes) acoustic interlude that does not really add anything to the album overall.

In sum, if you are a hardcore fan of the band, who must own all tracks Virgin Steele have ever released, this EP is for you. Anyone else would be better off skipping this and heading right on to The House of Atreus Act I or II.

Usually I'm not a big fan of ep's, but since I'm such a sucker for Virgin Steele I'll gladly make an exception. This ep was released in between the two House Of Atreus albums and has some new songs (Wings Of Vengeance and Flames Of Thy Power) which are also on The House Of Atreus Act II, a song which is only on this ep (Agamemnon's Last Hour) and three songs from earlier albums in a different mix.

Wings Of Vengeance and Flames Of Thy Power are perfect examples of what was next to come on Atreus 2: solid epic power metal you would expect from Virgin Steele. Agamemnon's Last Hour is a short piano interlude with some high pitched vocals. Nothing really special though. The real special is the new mix of Prometheus The Fallen One, which originally appeared on The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell 2: there are some extra vocals and the guitars and drums are a lot heavier. This song definitly is a huge improvement over the original version. It's the same case with Great Sword Of Flames, which is also a lot heavier. Gate Of Kings is a good acoustic version, though not especially better than the original.

What makes this ep so valuable to newbies, is the fact that it shows Virgin Steele in all its different aspects. To the collectors like me, it provides some good valuable new old songs which are in the most cases better than the originals. Besides that, 31 minutes of music is almost a complete album. A must have for the fans, but also very interesting for the metalheads who like epic and bombastic songs.

This e.p really is only intended as a small warming up to the second act of the "House Of Atreus" saga - and since all of the songs can already be found on any of the previous or future albums (albeit the versions on here are slightly changed) a bit pointless in the long run (but hey, I got it inbetween "House I" and "House II" so as in the topic - it was a nice warming up).

The only song on here which isn't on any other release is "Agamemnon's Last Hour" and it's really to short or unspectacular to make this one a worthy purchase - still all of the songs on here (especially "Gate Of Kings") remain excellent in their own right.

If you never heard Vs this might be a decent introduction, but now really a neccesity if you already own everything (unless of course you are a die-hard fan or collector like me).

I know I was kinda hard on the Virgins earlier ('Life among the ruins'), so I'm gonna make it up and try to do them some justice. This is a mini cd promoting their latest album 'House of Atreus act II' (I think anyway), three new songs, two of them is included on the full-length also (tracks 1 & 2), both decent metal songs which I can listen to if I don't have anything else beside me. The third, "Agamemnon's last hour", is a short softie. David Defeis ranges from a falsette (it isn't the best I've heard but it's ok) to a kinda raw and right-in-the-face voice ala Eric Adams (Manowar) which I think suits him best.

Then there's a new version of "Prometheus the fallen one" from 'Marriage of heaven and hell part 2', pretty good song. Though the real treat here is "Great sword of flame" from 'House of Atreus act 1', one of my fave songs with this band - uptempo metal with a real Manowar-chorus ("great sword of flame, rip the night, great sword of flame in the sky"), don't get the impression that I worship Manowar though. "Gate of kings" is another song off 'House of Atreus act 1', however not one of the better.

Not a total disaster, but this isn't that interesting either - so if you're gonna get something with Virgin Steele (yes I give my approval although it's nothing I listen to myself), get 'Invictus' or one of the 'House of Atreus' albums