Review: Virgin Steele

Virgin Steele
““The House Of Atreus: Act II””
(T&T)

I have been putting off listening to this album for well over a month now simply because I knew what my reaction would be.  *Groan*  I don’t like power metal: it tends to sounds weak, and makes you glad the 80’s are over.  This whole concept album obsession is just too much, so the double CD The House Of Atreus: Act II was twice as painful as it could have been with just one spandex cover power-ballad aqua net disk.  The worst part about this album is that it’s a sequel; the first one was also a double disk,
making me think of what a waste all the musicianship the Virgin Steele has.  Topic wise, there is way too much thought put in to this ancient Greek thing.  The insert comes with a synopsis of what has and is happening, a cast of nine, including Apollo!   Big whoop.  All the songs are plays set to music, with these three guys singings all the lines, really high up.  Did I mention the power ballads? Every two or three songs is a super cheesy  piano-driven slow jam, I think it’s supposed to be…epic, but the result is far from impressive.  It’s really not surprising that Virgin Steele can’t get much of a break in the U.S.  In all honesty, nothing in the 23 total tracks stood out enough to earn praise.  Laughable at times, this is the kind of thing you would have found on MTV on heavy rotation with Firehouse or some other hack like that.  There should really be a warning label: Listening may cause drowsiness, do not operate heavy machinery will listening.  And I don’t think my desk will be the same, I keep smashing my forehead on it trying to choke through.   In other words, if you LOVE power metal, go buy this and put it with your John Tesh Collection, other wise stay away.