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Virgin Steele > Noble Savage > Reviews
Virgin Steele - Noble Savage

Savagely Good - 63%

HammerOfDeath, January 27th, 2017
Written based on this version: 1988, CD, Steamhammer (Reissue)

Somewhere between 1983 and 1985, Virgin Steele had their big fight between papa Jack and mama David, a fight that would heavily dictate the future of the band. Long story short, Jack Starr is out and David Defeis basically becomes the leader of the band. This is interesting because if Jack stayed and David left, the band would certainly be way different, they would have gone a much more traditional style and possibly had more success (commercially speaking). In my honest opinion, one of the big reasons VS never quite made it can be largely attributed to David himself, but that's a story for another day. Jack is out, Pursino is in, and along with Defeis, Ayvazian and O'Reilly, the Noble Savage era of Virgin Steele is born.

This one was surprisingly well received, a lot more than Guardians of the Flame I believe. This was the album that put Virgin Steele on the map and made them bigger. Surprisingly, I think this one is very inconsistent, it has its moments for sure, but the album often goes from really good to really crappy really quick, like Trump's presidential campaign was. You can also tell that the guitarist is different from the previous record, Pursino focuses a lot more on meatier riffs, while Starr cared much more for the leads and the flashy solos. It's also in this very record where the keyboard starts to make a more prominent presence. Furthermore, the constant comparisons to Manowar also began right about here, and with good reason! This could very easily be a Manowar album: They made it inconsistent just like Manowar; the vocals are crazy a bit like Eric Adams; there's some keyboard masturbation, in Manowar its bass masturbation; Pretentious? Yep! However, Manowar always knew what they wanted to play: true metal and true metal only. Virgin Steele seems a bit confused as they alternate between epic (Angel of Light, Noble Savage), heavy metal (Thy Kingdom Come, Fight Tooth and Nail) and fucking glam rock (I'm on Fire, Rock Me), giving a very unbalanced feel to the album.

Towards the end of the album there's a spree of three complete stinkers that serve purely as fillers, "Evil in her Eyes", "Rock Me", and "Don't Close Your Eyes". These three songs mark this sudden shift to glam rock and holy shit is it bad! In particular, "Rock Me" is one obnoxious piece of crap. But then there's the really good stuff like the total power metal of "We Rule the Night" with a very powerful chorus, "Thy Kingdom Come" is a song that I adore because it sounds like Lordian Guard and manages to sound epic in only 4 minutes. Then there are the two long tracks, "Noble Savage" and "Angel of Light". The latter is, without a doubt, the strongest track here, a song crafted before the album was even thought of that manages to carry the whole record to higher echelons. It shows the bands more intelligent side, their ability to shift moods, from broody to triumphant, from lightness to darkness. DeFeis hits the notes like a pro and the guitar restraint works in favor of the song, any jarring guitar play would make this song considerably worse. A masterpiece! The title track is also a very strong song with a unique ending, it becomes this cheesy keyboard-driven piece where David goes as high as possible with a lot of "oohs" and "aahs", some don't quite like it and find it insufferable, but I actually think it's quite cool and the keyboard melody is a huge earworm.

I think someone in another review summed it quite perfectly, the high points of this record are really high, but the low points are really low, and so I end up skipping the crappy songs and only wanting to hear the good stuff. All in all, a decent record that suffers from the inconsistent disease.

Classic with a minor side of filler - 80%

Andromeda_Unchained, July 31st, 2013

Virgin Steele’s Noble Savage is a magnificent release on many levels, although one that isn’t without its flaws. Following Guardians Of The Flame and the exodus of Jack Starr, the band added the superb Edward Pursino, whose guitar skills are nothing to sniff it. The guy is a riff master, and his leads are quite frankly godly. This, coupled with a step up in the song writing department, spawned what I feel is the first essential release from Virgin Steele.

One thing that will always remain brilliant about Noble Savage is the vocal lines, particularly on songs such as “We Rule The Night” or the title track which shows David DeFeis maturing and starting to really get a hold on his more aggressive delivery. These songs, among many others on the album, feature massive shout along choruses that are fun as hell to imitate, and catchier than an outbreak of the flu in a retirement home.

The band’s eighties metal styling still remains firmly intact here on Noble Savage, although it is also here where the Virgin Steele give us their first unadulterated glimpse into the epic monster they would soon become. The aforementioned title track shows this wonderfully, although it is in the closing “The Angel Of The Light” where my mind begins to crumble. The song is an absolute monster, and for nineteen bloody eighty five is all the more impressive. Way ahead of its time, “The Angel Of The Light” is an early example of the power metal epic, taking inspiration from the Rainbow epics and building on that foundation with cracking ideas and quality, fantastical musical themes. I can imagine a lot of band’s finding inspiration in this.

Those who enjoyed the band’s straight up metal crunchers will be happy for the likes of “Fight Tooth And Nail” and “I’m On Fire”, which boast riffs aplenty and furious lead guitars courtesy of Edward Pursino. If there’s anywhere the gang go wrong on Noble Savage it would be in the songs “Rock Me” and “Don’t Close Your Eyes” (the former of which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Winger album, and the latter is a throwaway ballad). Virgin Steele hadn’t quite mastered the art of the ballad at this point.

Performances and production across the board are quality here. Despite the keyboards sounding a little dated now, they’re still enjoyable and the piano sounds great. As I’ve mentioned, the addition of Edward Pursino was one of the best moves Virgin Steele ever made, and he really makes his presence felt. David DeFeis sounds great too, beginning to master not only the aforementioned more aggressive style, but also his banshee screaming and cooing. The rhythm section is ace, with stalwarts Joey Ayvazian and Joe O’Reilly doing what they did best.

All in all, Noble Savage puts forth some excellent ideas, some of which were ahead of their time and others more routed in the time of release. Despite two songs which don’t really stand up, the rest of the material is killer, and the strongest tracks on here can still hold their own with some of the band’s more modern, accomplished material. An essential piece of heavy and power metal history, this album should be a part of any self respecting power metal fan’s collection, if not for the songs themselves, then for their influence. Get a hold of this if you haven’t already.

Originally written for http://blackwindmetal.com/

Saved by "The Angel Of Light"! - 70%

VirginSteele_Helstar, August 15th, 2012

Noble Savage was such a big deal when it came out. All of a sudden everyone wanted to know about Virgin Steele-the Long Island swordsmen. They had played a fair amount of shows before then and the press had reviewed and profiled them. The general consensus was that they were “on the verge of greatness”.

“Guardians Of The Flame” was a great album and yet everyone felt they ought to surpass that. The pressure was on and the boys were feeling it. Jack Starr had left the camp and quickly been replaced by David DeFeis’ longtime colleague, Edward Pursino to fill out some Canadian dates. Several songs had been written but the more lofty ones were let go to make space for a few easy-on-the-ear accessible radio friendly tunes.

Always striving to stay true to his craft, DeFeis factored in simple but effective mechanisms to make even the most basic of statements sound grand and worthwhile. He succeeded-but only to a point. Some of the more poppier moments of the record just couldn’t be saved from themselves. And so the album exists unto this day a largely inconsistent work. It tried to appeal to a larger audience that loved their arena rock and AOR tunes yet still ring true to the dirty roots heavy metal public. A perfect balance was not struck, but a balance of some sort was maintained.

On the one hand you had poppy, upbeat hard rock slabs like “Come On And Love Me”, “Rock Me”, “The Evil In Her Eyes” and “Don’t Close Your Eyes” that could easily rival any band churning out a similar brand of rock/pseudo-metal fare at that time. On the other hand, you had ambitious, orchestral, sprawling epics like “The Angel Of Light", "Noble Savage" and "Thy Kingdom Come". It might seem like a sharp contrast, but it actually wasn't. All those songs were crossed by the same line; they were all ultra-melodic with prominence given to choruses as if the band was striving for catchiness above all else.Therefore, DeFeis' brief sell out didn't entirely leave his more honest material unscathed. it all came shining with the same sheen.

The better songs on the album are those that don't try too hard-opener "We Rule The Night", "Fight Tooth And Nail", "Love And Death"-the ones whose job is essentially to just rock hard and mighty and go away. Loftiness did pay off though in the end. "The Angel Of Light" which had been conceived before any of the other material saved the album. It was such a beacon of the band's brainier side and a signal for them to pursue their epic ambitions as they would do in great pomp and flamboyance on "The Marriage Of Heaven and Hell, Part 2" and the two Acts of "The House Of Atreus". The song was a brooding masterpiece that greatly affected emotions with its complex layers and mood shifts; from dark and mystical to light and triumphant. Although the other epic on the album, "Noble Savage" suffered from David DeFeis' over singing, here he was a master, hitting the right note at the right time and exhibiting his best keyboard performance thus far. Edward Pursino's contributions to this album were fairly minimal. He was yet to get comfortable and in sharp contrast to Jack Starr, he sounded more controlled. "Come On And Love Me" contained his finer moments and seemed to echo the band's speed metal adventures as Venom incarnates in the band Exorcist. Ultimately, it was ruined by the overly insistent chorus that for some reason sounds disco-ey to me.

"Noble Savage" rests its head on the cushions of fondness. It is tolerated and forgiven even by the harshest of critics because after all, by all purposes and intents, it does rock! Personally, I think of it as just the half of a good idea.

A good album, just confused - 66%

CrystalMountain, April 2nd, 2009

Like others have mentioned, Virgin Steele seemed to be at a bit of a crossroads when they released this album. It was like they were trying to decide whether or not they wanted to play epic heavy metal, or lean more towards a party rock sound. So it's no surprise that the album is about half and half in that regard. Some of the songs on here will really have you scratching your head if you've only heard more recent Virgin Steele material, some of these songs are straight up glam metal, cock rock, with vocals that make Vince Neil seem tame in comparison. Sometimes those songs work, sometimes they don't. The same goes for the more epic traditional tracks, some of them are very good, others are bland.

"We Rule the Night" gets the album off to a good start, it seems like it's considered a Virgin Steele classic, and for good reason. A good steady gallop, loud bass that gives the song a dark feel. A great chorus with somewhat restrained vocals. So far so good, but here's where it gets weird. "I'm On Fire" is straight up fucking cock rock, with sleazy vocals that almost sound like they are rapped(yep...) I'll admit, I enjoy the song quite a bit, you just have to be ready for it. "Thy Kingdom Come" is a lot like the first track, and it's a really nice heavy rocker. Then comes the albums first epic, "Noble Savage," And it's a very good song, clocking in at 7 and a half minutes, it flows along nicely, and shows the band doing what they do best. Probably the highlight of the entire album. Then when we get to "The Evil in Her Eyes" the album shifts back into cock rock once again, this one is just as cheesy as "I'm on Fire" and the lyrics are absolutely atrocious. But for some reason, I find myself liking the song quite a bit.

Then comes the most hilarious moment on the entire album, the beginning of the song "Rock Me" which is probably the fucking lamest song I've ever heard in my life. I went and got myself tested for AIDS after listening to this fucking pop rock shit. But I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite, because as much as I despise "Rock Me" I actually enjoy the hilariously cheesy ballad "Don't Close Your Eyes" I have no idea why, it's just as likely to induce AIDS as the previous track but this one just clicks, so sue me. I skipped over a few tracks, mostly because they are boring, like the 7 minute closer "The Angel of Light" which sounds like an early Maiden song, just not nearly as good.

In closing, the album is definitely a mixed bag. It's just weird to hear such different styles in one place, on the same album. But if you are willing to wade through some shit, you'll find that there are some really fucking great songs on here.

Skip two songs, the rest rocks! - 85%

Lennert, May 8th, 2006

Noble Savage is not the landmark album it is called in the album booklet, but it's absolutely not as mediocre like some people like to call it. I do need to stress you all to skip Rock Me en Don't Close Your Eyes. Rock Me is a rocker, Don't Close Your Eyes is a ballad. This being said, let's move on to the rest of the album.

Songs like I'm on Fire, Fight Tooth and Nail, The Evil in her Eyes and Love and Death are just plane, nice rockers with some good vocalwork and great guitarsolo's, the only problem is the lyrics are quite cheezy and definitly not as great like the later work will be (especially The Evil in her Eyes is more glamrock than the rest).

Fear not, for headbangers like We Rule the Night and Come on and love me, are absolutely great: raw, pounding and heavy. Ballads like The spirit of Steele and Where are you running to are also not bad at all, although Where are you running perhaps will be a little to soft for most metal heads. Image of a Faun at Twilight and The Pyre of Kings are typical VS instrumentals, which means there's nothing wrong with them.

The real great stuff is to find in the epics. Thy Kingdom come starts like a normal rocker, but when David starts to sing 'And dream for Tomorrow, take my hand, we'll b free. Ancient kingdoms in the sunset in the darkness of our years, never fade!' the song makes a big change into the epic songs they are playing nowadays. Noble Savage is a classic metal tune. People who command you to skip it after 5 minutes just have no taste at all, for David's screams are awesome. The Angel of Light is also great and actually quite progressive. Great lyrics and keyboardwork on this one.

My personal favorite, Obsession (it burns for you) is a song I think they should play more live. It has emotion, power and some haunting lyrics about love turning into obsession. The chorus 'Ride the wind tonight, see the angels fall!' is awesome and will make you scream along and wanna wreck your head.

The production is typical eightees: not bad, but maybe a little too old for some people. I myself don't care much for it, since the songs themselves are the most important thing. Noble Savage is not THE landmark album in VS history, but it sure helped them a lot to make it to the metal top. Skip the two songs I just mentioned, sing along to the rest of it.

Not as Classic as people make it out to be... - 70%

Sinner, December 23rd, 2002

Regarded by certain people (amongst them Virgin Steele frontman David Defeis) as a classic, although personally I wouldn't want to go and label it as one myself - due to being far too inconsistent.

The main problem (apart from the weak production) is the fact that Defeis doesn't seem to have made up his mind yet as to what exactly he wants to play - switching off excellent epic tracks ("Thy Kingdom Come", "Noble Savage") with songs that can be described as glamrock ("I'm On Fire", "Rock Me") and straight, solid rockers ("Fight Tooth And Nail"). Musically though you can already hear out what an excellent band they would turn out to be - although everything is a little bit less worked out and developped as of yet.

Definitely not as strong as the later (mid-90's up to now..) Virgin Steele releases, although still above average - containing at least a a handfull of classics, most notably "Noble Savage", "Angel Of Light" and "We Rule The Night" - but not enough to label the entire album as such.

Note as well the the tracklisting and review is for the re-mastered version, which differs quite a lot from the "original" - with the inclusion of various decent bonus-tracks and a very nice booklet.

Not bad, though absolutely hideous in places - 66%

UltraBoris, December 17th, 2002

This is Virgin Steele from before they were making the House of Atreus and other cool theme albums... while this CD has elements of such later efforts, there is also a lot of... cough cough sputter... glam. The CD ranges in quality from great to Godawful. David Defeis sounds a lot less developed as a vocalist sometimes.

"We Rule the Night" starts us off, after a random intro... total power metal, and while it's cheesy in that Motley Crue way, it's really a great song. Nice lead guitars, and the chorus is catchy as fuck. Winner. "I'm on Fire" is a bit sillier, and the album goes in this way for a bit, until we get to the title track... this is one of the first really great epics that Virgin Steele wrote, and this one works really great....

for a while. Then, you think the song is over, but no, it is not. They staple on this bit at the end that is really the Prom Song from Hell. A lot of "oohs" and "aahs" and shrieking, and MY GOD WHERE IS THE SKIP BUTTON!!! This is really hideous.

Then, we get some stuff that really sounds like Manowar in 'Fight Tooth and Nail', and some more silly stuff, and we get to the first ballad, 'Don't Close Your Eyes'. So I guess at this point V.S. were not good at writing ballads yet, and that is all that I have to say about that.

More epic stuff in "The Angel of Light", and then "Love and Death". Then, more ballads. The good and the absolutely horrible are alternated, and when it's horrible, it really is REALLY horrible. I'm talking "Ooh baby" stuff. Stuff that would make Bon Jovi cringe. Skip button necessitated. It's really weird what is going on here, since even the first two albums didn't have silly 80s cock rock in this great amounts. It's very schizophrenic.

The last highlight... "Come on and Love Me". It starts off as a silly 80s song, then for no apparent reason it speeds up by literally 80% and, what is this, thrash metal? Not quite, but you will bang your head. It has the "Eat Me Alive" syndrome - really bad lyrics but surprisingly good music.

So, what do we have here? A lot of skip button jockeying is needed, but otherwise this album definitely has its highlights. Not bad, just not great. "Yeah, baby."