Wrrrow! Look out! Eeee eeee… From the top of the mountain, yeah! Yow! Fire! Owww. Ruff. Oooh… Look out! Rowf! Yeah! Oooh yeah!
And so David DeFeis kicks off Virgin Steele’s 13th album The Black Light Bacchanalia with every vocal exclamation known to man.
He sounds excited and so he should: the opening track By the Hammer of Zeus (and the Wrecking Ball of Thor) is pure awesomeness. It delivers on the promise of its ridiculously mighty title. I’ve become obsessed with this song and have been listening to it thrice daily for many moons now. Ruff!
Unfortunately, the rest of the album isn’t as instantly appealing . Exclamations aside, DeFeis spends most of The Black Light Bacchanalia singing in an oddly soft voice. It’s an interesting experiment, making it seem like he’s whispering sweet nothings into your ear or he’s inside your head. Look out! But it doesn’t do much for the album’s dynamics, especially when many of the songs are meandering and forgettable.
But my hopeless addiction to that opening track keeps me coming back for more and moments of greatness keeping popping out with each listen. Weirdly, considering the laid-back vocals on the heavier tracks, DeFeis sings the excellent piano-ballad The Tortures of the Damned with raging passion. Fire! And the softer vocal approach works dreamily on To Crown Them With Halos (Parts 1 & 2) and Necropolis (He Answers Them With Death), bringing out all the drama and the melody. I’m finding that there’s nothing in my collection quite like this so I’m seduced into giving it another spin. It’s flawed but fascinating. And even if it doesn’t quite live up to its exclamatory opening there’s still plenty to get excited about here. Ooohh yeah!
HEAVY METAL OVERLOAD 
Hah! I like that track! Very METAL. The album cover is cool, looks like Krampus has come to celebrate Christmas once again!
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Yow! It’s a great track… better than The Strumbellas that’s for sure! 😉
Cool packaging on this. I think there was three versions all with different covers.
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You may not have seen the ad, but the guy from the Strumbellas looks very much like “Captain Obvious”, the spokesman for a travel company. I think I need to make a meme.
The artwork is cool for sure. Evil and cute at the same time.
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I actually don’t know anything about them! The name was enough to put me off.
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Dude they suck…I don’t even want to talk about them on your fine metal site!
Check your FB 😉
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Yikes! Jings! That opening paragraph read like lyrics from a recent Scott Walker album!
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But with less slapped meat percussion!
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Personally I’m quite partial to the bread of wickedness, especially with hummus and olives.
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I prefer the toast of naughtiness myself.
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Have you ever tried a bagel of badness? Or a croissant or cruelty? Part of this complete breakfast!
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Keep going with this and we’ll have enough song titles for a breakfast-themed death metal album.
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Your possible tracklist, sir:
1. Bread Of Wickedness
2. Toast Of Naughtiness
3. Bagel Of Badness
4. Croissant Of Cruelty
5. Lewdness Loaf
6. Cereal Killer
7. Nutella Of Death
8. Rotting Fruit Salad
9. Muffin Choker
10. Black Metal Coffee
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Cereal Killer! That would probably have to be the album title too haha!
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Cereal Killer’s an oldie but a goodie. I was rather proud of Lewdness Loaf and Black Metal Coffee, though Muffin Choker is a close third…
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I think Green Jelly did one called Cereal Killer.
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Nice driving metal track! By its chords, it’s another one that sounds like it should be on a movie soundtrack for a flick about fast military airplanes.
I’d love to hear that intro seperated out vocals-only like they did to DLR that time…
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